Muntaka Disowns ‘Girlfriend’

Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, has denied having any amorous relationship with Edith Zineuali, the lady he was said to have assisted to procure a German visa as alleged in the infamous ‘pampers and khebab’ scandal.

This was revealed when one of the lawyers representing him at the ongoing investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Kwesi Baffour Intsiful was cross-examining his (Muntaka’s) accusers, the Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), led by its spokesman Richard Kwesi Nyamah.

Muntaka, who was alleged to have ordered the release of over GH¢1.4million to the Sports Council without the approval of the Chief of Staff when he was the Sports Minister, was not at the hearing because he was said to have traveled to the United States on official assignment and scheduled to arrive yesterday evening.

Prior to the commencement of the hearing, Mr Nyamah and his lawyer, Anthony Namoo indicated the PNF’s discontinuation in pursuing 15 of the 16 allegations that they had earlier made against the former minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Asawase constituency in the Ashanti region, with the exception of one that has to do with the acquisition of a German visa for his supposed ‘girlfriend’.

This, he said, was because the witnesses on whom they were banking their hopes to prove their case, especially the former chief director and principal accountant of the Sports Ministry, Albert Anthony Ampong and Adim Odoom respectively, have all declined to testify before the Commission in order not to compromise the case they are currently pursuing against the state in court for their wrongful dismissal from the civil service, which is scheduled to be heard sometime in November this year.

During cross-examination, lawyer Intsiful asked Mr Nyamah the basis of his allegation, to which he indicated that the said Edith Zineuali was Muntaka’s girlfriend.

Mr Nyamah said his claim was based on the fact that President Mills had at a meeting with the media sought to ask whether Muntaka was the first government official to have travelled with a girlfriend; and the fact that the MP himself had indicated his preparedness to pay for any such liabilities was in itself an admission of guilt.

He tendered in as evidence a copy of the government white paper that was issued and signed by then Presidential Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, after the National Security had conducted investigations into the allegations against Muntaka.

Though counsel for the embattled MP raised issues about the authenticity of the document because it did not bear the insignia of the Government of Ghana (the coat of arms), the chairman of the Commission, Emile Francis Short, admitted it in evidence.

Mr Nyamah also tendered in a copy of the petition sent to the President by Mr Odoom, in which he asked the President to cause investigations into the allegations he made against the Minister in question as evidence.

But Muntaka’s lawyer put it to him that his client had no such relationship with the woman, Edith Zineuali.

Aside that, lawyer Intsiful said his client (Muntaka) did not have anything to do with the lady’s visa application; let alone the processes that led to its acquisition from the German Embassy. And neither did he have the opportunity to vet the application since it did not come before him.

For this reason, he said his client might have been misrepresented, taking into consideration the fact that the officer who processed the visa application described her as a staff of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when she was indeed a staff of Parliament and specifically the Secretary to then Majority Leader in the House, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin.

The Commission has since adjourned sitting to Thursday, September 30, 2010, by which time Muntaka would have returned to the country to enable him cross examine his accuser.

Muntaka, who was barely four months in office, reportedly traveled with Edith Zineuali to the finals of the 1st CHAN tournament in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, under very unusual circumstances.

He was said to have presented the lady as an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Edith was indeed a staff of the office of Parliament.