$1.7m debt hits Ghana

An Ivorian- born hospitality consultant, Jean Marcel Tape, has filed a petition at the presidency claiming $1.7 million reportedly incurred by the Kojo Bonsu-led National Sports Council (NSC) in unpaid tour packages for Ghanaian football supporters who travelled to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Two years after the tournament, Jean Marcel, the Chief Executive of African Village, an event management company, approved by FIFA to render hospitality services to selected West African countries including Ghana, said Ghanaian officials had refused to pay the outstanding bills.

The impasse over unpaid tickets has set off a chain-reaction that includes a potential blacklisting of Ghanaian supporters in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“FIFA has been notified about the infamous activities of Ghana National Sports Council during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in being perpetrated by the Chairman (Kojo Bonsu) and FIFA's outcome would be disastrous for Ghanaian supporters come 2014 World Cup in Brazil should NSC refuse to make payment for services rendered by FIFA approved agent,” Jean Marcel threatened.

In the September 17, 2012 petition to President Mahama, made available to Daily Guide, Jean Marcel stated that in May 2010, Kojo Bonsu, the Chief Executive of the NSC, approached him for a total tour package for approximately $5.5 million for 1,100 Ghanaians supporters.

The package was planned to cover air tickets, accommodation, meals and ground transportation for all the 1,100 spectators airlifted to South Africa.

However, in his petition to President Mahama, Mr. Marcel alleged that Kojo Bonsu lured him to bring the tickets to Ghana and upon arrival at the Kotoka late May 2010, he was roughed up by a number of gun-wielding Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) operatives who subsequently snatched the tickets meant for the Ghanaian supporters.

“Your Excellency, to my surprise, Kojo hatched a plan and invited me to Ghana from South Africa to present the games tickets for supporters so that I can receive my payment, instead for Kojo to pay me he then used BNI security officials with machine guns and kidnapped me into a small room at the Kotoka International Airport.... Kojo ordered the security officials to rob me of all the game tickets numbering 2100 and ordered me to keep quiet and leave the airport.

Sensing that my life was in danger, I bordered the next available plane to Ivory Coast”, stated Jean Marcel in the petition.

When contacted by Daily Guide, Kojo Bonsu denied ever wresting the tickets from Marcel, describing him as a “very terrible crook”.

Mr. Bonsu stated, “He is a crook; we paid him for the tickets for the World Cup. The money was transferred to him and just about two days for the World Cup to open, the tickets were not here. So we told him to bring the tickets, he brought them, we had paid him the money. The man still owes me money.”

The Deal

Documents available with Daily Guide indicate that apparently, on April 16, 2010, memorandum of understanding was signed between Posterity Capital Group, the mother company of Muzinda Residence where the Ghanaian entourage lodged: E-Zee Travel, the local travel agency in South Africa, African Village South Africa and the National Sports Council.

All the parties were allocated their respective responsibilities to cater for the travel arrangements, from visa acquisition to lodging, transportation and feeding.

In total, Africa Village was to arrange for accommodation for 1,100 supporters for 13 days at the cost of $201 a night, ground transportation using 10 luxury buses, and match tickets. The package summed up to $1, 706,659. This amount was apparently left unpaid.

According to the local partner of Africa Village, Kwame Wadaada, who heads a local NGO called Africa Awake, the deal was snatched from African Village and handed down to Mr. Bonsu's son based in South Africa, Michael Owusu Darko Bonsu, who allegedly reaped $495,000 from margins gained from providing accommodation and feeding for the Ghanaian contingent.

According to Mr. Wadaada, unknown to Africa Village, a parallel MOU was signed between Posterity Capital Group, E-Zee Travel, Michael Bonsu and the National Sport Council headed by Kojo Bonsu.

But when quizzed, Mr. Bonsu said the deal was taken away from the African Village because it kept delaying in delivering the tickets and after several correspondences, Jean Marcel was convinced to bring the tickets to Ghana.

Ticket Blues

The NSC boss told Daily Guide that when the tickets finally arrived, their authenticity became an issue.

David Kirkham of Match Event Services, FIFA's ticketing enforcement agency, raised questions about the fact that the verification codes of the tickets from Ghana were not reflecting in the FIFA system.

“That means those papers [confirmation codes] he gave us were fraudulent, so we got scared,” charged Mr. Bonsu.

“So what [we] did was that, the tickets he brought to us, we calculated the amount of money we've paid him, and gave the balance of the ticket to him,” Mr. Bonsu disclosed.

The impasse appears to be intensifying as both sides feel they have been cheated.