The 345 stranded soccer fans may have been successfully flown to South Africa to cheer the Black Stars in their encounter with their Australian counterparts tomorrow, but there are still lingering questions about the names and identities of the individuals and groups of persons said to have sponsored the trip.
Daily Guide sources said that instead of the usual EI-Wak Stadium where pre-departure formalities were carried out the supporters, mostly National Democratic Congress (NDC) foot-soldiers, were ferried to the Zenith College area at the back of the Trade Fair at La where the supporters were screened by NDC officials including the party's Women's Organizer, Anita De Souza.
Deputy Minister of Local Government Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, who was the main architect behind the initiative, is not forthcoming with details about those who sponsored the trip, claiming the sponsors do not want their names and identities to be made public.
In an interview with Daily Guide Thursday, Mr. Afriyie Ankrah said the phantom sponsors undertook the exercise from a humanitarian point of view since they were touched by the plight of the stranded supporters, some of whom had been staying at the El-Wak stadium for almost a week without food or water.
He said “for all you know, me too I contributed maybe some GH¢500 or GH¢1,000."
"If I hire a bus to cart people from EI-Wak to the airport, it's a contribution, isn't it. If somebody brings 1,000 packs of take-away, it's a contribution. If somebody brings water to them, it's a contribution, do you understand me?" he asked rhetorically, stressing that "people contributed in diverse ways but everybody thinks it should be a quiet thing,” he added.
However, Daily Guide sources said an individual who was at the Zenith College for the screening coughed out a staggering $1.5million to support the airlifting of the supporters.
According to sources, Kobby Woyome, the NDC Member of Parliament for South Tongu and his brother, Alfred Woyome of the Office of the President, are said to have contributed to the funding of the airlifting the fans to South Africa.
When contacted on his mobile phone yesterday, the MP confirmed to that they were "supporting the government as private individuals" to airlift the stranded fans to South Africa.
"We came in as a private entity. We are using our own money to support the government to get the fans there," he said
Asked how much they were spending to airlift the fans, Mr. Woyome, who sounded busy, said "this is something we can talk about later. We are under serious tension. You can hear from the background. Everybody wants to go to watch Ghana play."
Daily Guide learnt that his elder brother, Alfred, was mentioning the names of the supporters at the Zenith College, prior to their departure.
Even before the World Cup is over, a pressure group, Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), has already expressed concern about the manner in which the government was handling the airlifting of the fans and has called for investigations into the matter.
