GAA to summon Bissah’s “Manager” to respond to allegations

The Ghana Athletics Association’s executive board is set to summon the self-acclaimed manager of Martha Bissah’s, Mikki Osei Berko, to an emergency meeting to request clarification of the basis for his purported contractual arrangement as her manager, given her age.

Despite Osei Berko’s claim that Bissah is now 18 years old, her official age in the IAAF system indicates that she is still a minor.

GAA is therefore interested in understanding how she legally assumed that contractual relationship. The GAA was also not amused by Osei-Berko’s pronouncements on radio that put the GAA into disrepute; on the air not too long ago, Osei-Berko claimed that the federation had asked Bissah for GHC 7,000, purportedly to arrange paperwork for her to travel.

The GAA plans to seek clarification or redress for that before even considering whether to even recognize him as an athlete representative for Bissah or any athlete.

Bissah, who won a gold medal in the 800m event at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, has been in the spot light for the wrong reasons recently after she rejected an offer of a student-academic scholarship from the GAA to study in the USA.

In the aftermath of President Mahama’s State of the nation address where he promised to help the youngster achieve greater laurels in the future, Bissah’s supposed manager has been heard on several media platforms claiming that the athlete has never been offered a scholarship by the GAA, among a plethora of other allegations against the GAA.

Corporal Nii Odartey Lamptey, Bissah’s longtime trainer and guardian, has also publicly disowned her after accusing the 800m runner of not picking his calls and also moving camp from his family house to Mikki’s residence at Kasoa without his knowledge.

But in the latest twist to the story, Mikki Osei Berko is said to have written to the GAA introducing his supposed management team to the GAA for “communication and planning” towards the young girl’s future.