Visa scandal: Pius being sacrificed – NDC MP

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Agbodza has said the deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide is being sacrificed following his suspension in the visa scandal that has rocked the country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

He believes some ‘big fishes’ who are actually the culprits are being protected.

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo Thursday announced the suspension of the Deputy Sports Minister Pius Hadzide and the Director General of the National Sports Authority, Robert Sarfo Mensah for their alleged roles in the scandal that saw the deportation of some 60 Ghanaians who posed as journalists to cover the ongoing Commonwealth games in Australia.

But the MP insists the Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah must equally be suspended to allow for “unimpeded” investigation into the embarrassing deportation incident that has hit the country.

“I think the whole thing is being done probably to protect some people who are actually the culprits, Pius Hadzide is being sacrificed. We believe there must be a wider inquiry, it must not be a committee set up by the Minister that should be doing this because some people are pointing accusing fingers at him and even people above him even up to Flagstaff House.

“We’re not satisfied at all, I think this should be open up, the Minister himself on whose behalf the deputy was acting has been pointed out in some circles as being implicated. So I think we need to live above the Minister to have an independent inquiry, maybe Parliamentary inquiry will be better than having once again the BNI doing the investigations, in fact we don’t expect anything different from that because they’ve done it the past.”

I’ll be exonerated after probe

The suspended Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide moments after his suspension was announced denied ever playing a role in the circumstances that led to some 60 Ghanaians posing as journalists ended up in Australia for the Commonwealth Games.

Welcoming the President’s decision, he told Asempa FM’s Ekosii sen programme that, “After the investigations, they’ll realise that I know nothing about it and I’ll be exonerated.”