Polack urges Asante Kotoko to act responsibly to accident victims

Former Asante Kotoko coach Steven Polack has expressed frustration by the club's supposed inappropriate behaviour towards him and other victims of a 2017 motor accident.

A team official lost his life while several others were injured when the Porcupine Warriors bus crashed into a stationary truck on their return to Kumasi from a Ghana Premier League match in Accra.

Former goalkeeper Isaac Amoako and striker Sadick Adams, both victims, have earlier called out the club over the lack of action as the side marked three years after the fatal incident on Sunday.

“Basically it’s a human thing that you do that - you come to your employee’s aid when there has been some kind of problem to your employee," current Gor Mahia coach Polack, who coached Kotoko between 2017 and 2018, told Wontumi FM.

“You are an employee and you are working for an employer, you expect them [employer] to take care of you in whatever happens to you during your contract or the length you’ve been working there, so we are expecting them [Kotoko] to do that [compensate us].

“Let’s be honest, they [Kotoko management] are adults, they should know these things. If the tables turn around and it happens to them, how will they feel?

"Three years later and we still haven’t been compensated. What if it were them in the accident? Don’t you think they would have already got their compensation?

“So always you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes and feel it too. Kotoko needs to compensate us [accident victims].”

Kotoko had visited Accra to take on Inter Allies at El-Wak Stadium.

On their way back to Kumasi after a 1-0 reversal, the bus, carrying 15 players, seven technical officials and two journalists, slammed into a truck on the Nkawkaw road.

Deputy equipment officer Thomas Obeng Asare, unfortunately, could not make it out of the wreckage alive.

Several others, including players Baba Mahama, Michael Akuffo, Amoako and Owusu Sefa sustained various degrees of injuries, resulting in the hospitalisation of some of the victims.

Kotoko is arguably the biggest club in Ghana, having won a record 23 league titles and command the biggest fanbase.

Polack has also coached Ghanaian clubs King Faisal and Berekum Chelsea and is currently in charge of Kenyan champions Gor Mahia.