In June 2022, the UK’s leading sports news outlet, The Athletic broke the news of a Premier League star who had been arrested on allegations of rape.
The publication by The Athletic made no mention of the player in question, the club he plays for, or his nationality.
The news portal however gave hints about the player with the revelation that the player in question was a 29-year-old international footballer who was due to represent his country in the 2022 World Cup.
The story also gave details about the nature of the alleged crime committed by the player who was said to be a resident of Barnet, London.
In breaking down the specifics of the story, The Athletic and media houses in the UK who reported the story stayed away from mentioning the name or anything that directly linked the said footballer to the two allegations of rape.
Ace broadcaster, Paul Adom-Otchere has now let the cat out of the bag as he has confirmed that the player in question is Ghanaian footballer Thomas Partey.
On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, Paul Adom-Otchere mentioned Thomas Partey as the said player and suggested that it was Partey himself who informed some Ghanaians about his alleged involvement in the rape scandal that has dominated the Premier League news cycle from June 2022 when it was first broke to July this year when his bail term was extended to August.
“Recently our hero Thomas Partey had a problem with the British police. Did you see how scanty the information was? All of us were looking for the person but the British police will not tell anyone. All we heard were rumors and Partey himself telling some Ghanaians. That is how we got to know.
“They just put a small one line Thomas Partey is being investigated for this. They don’t come to have videos and its live on TV and all that”.
Context
Paul Adom-Otchere was protesting the conduct of the Office Special Prosecutor relative to the arrest of former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaaha.
Adom-Otchere cited the alleged Partey incident to draw a comparison with how the Metro Police of London, UK handled the situation to how Kissi Agyebeng and his cohort conducted their things publicly.
Adom-Otchere who is a lifelong Manchester United and Asante Kotoko fan likened the OSP’s conduct to Andre Dede Ayew and Ghana’s game against the Super Eagles of Nigeria in March 2023.
“Special prosecutor, we love you but you are not Dede Ayew. You aren’t the captain of the Black Stars. You are not Black Sherrif, Shatta Wale, Piesie Esther, DKB, Delay or Afia Schwarzenegger. You are the distinguished Special Prosecutor, a barrister at law and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
“Don’t be arresting people with funfair. It shouldn’t be live on radio and you shouldn’t be tweeting about it. If you are going to arrest people then you call media to follow you. We don’t want to see how you do your work just deliver to the nation. You are stigmatizing the people,” he fumed on his show.
