Ghana's Chef de Mission denies allegations

Accra, Oct. 20, GNA - Ghana's Chef de Mission at the just ended 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India Mohammed Sahnoon has rubbished allegations that he denied Ghanaian officials entry into the Games Village.

Sahnoon said the Games Village was a restricted area due to security arrangements and one is supposed to go through some processes before having access to it, but most officials failed to go through the process.


The Chef de Mission told GNA Sports in an interview in Accra on Wednesday that reports in sections of the media that he ordered for the sack of the Accountant of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Chief Executive of the National Sports Council (NSC) Worlanyo Agrah from the Village were false and should be disregarded as such.


He also denied treating the sector minister shabbily in India as reported in the media, saying such reports were false and calculated to tarnish his hard won reputation.


"Those stories were aimed at tarnishing my hard won reputation as a result of people's misunderstanding of the procedures and processes that should have been followed at the Games". He noted.


Sahnoon said the two officials were retrained from entering the Village because they did not have entry passes, which should have been facilitated by the Chef de Mission with a 24-hour notice but which were not followed.


He added that the accountant got to the entrance of the Village at 9pm, whilst he was on a different assignment far away from the venue and he had no knowledge of his arrival hence he was turned away by the security personal.

Sahnoon said it was a situation he had no control over because officials of the event were not prepared to further assist him with the issuance of any accreditation and passes after he had made several requests for other Ghanaian officials including Professor Francis Dodoo, Ray Quarcoo and Erasmus Adorkor among others.


The Chef de Mission said most of the problems at the Games were as a result of the decision of the Ghanaian officials to disregard his role as the head of the team and who must be consulted to facilitate their movement in India.


"They had no respect for my office, they thought they could do it all by themselves but on several occasions they hit a stone block at the end of the day.


"Their attitude at the Games was confrontational and it resulted in disregard for procedure and communication hence the several problems". He recounted.


He therefore called on the need to end the impasse at the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) to save Ghana sports from any future unfortunate incidents.