The fake para-athletes didn't represent Ghana - Sports Minister

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has taken a firm stand to clarify that his ministry was not involved in securing visas for a group falsely claiming to be Ghana's Paralympics team for a marathon event in Oslo, Norway.

He explained that, typically, associations inform the Sports Ministry through the body to which they belong, either the Olympic or Paralympic Committees, and routed through the National Sports Authority about upcoming events.

He stressed that his ministry must have been informed about the marathon event and that the team did not travel on behalf of Ghana.

"In this Norway case, no request was made to the Ghana Paralympic Committee nor the National Sports Authority to be forwarded to the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We were unaware of any event, and the team that went did not represent Ghana Paralympic Team as was widely reported," he stated during a press briefing on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

The Minister outlined the usual visa application process for athletes, noting that the Sports Ministry collaborates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to secure visas and does not directly send letters to embassies. "Normally, we don't issue letters to embassies; we write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to handle it on our behalf. For the record, this fabricated Paralympic team did not represent our country."

The Minister expressed his shock and dismay when the scandal was exposed after a statement from National Security revealed that an 11-member Paralympic team had absconded after arriving in Norway.

The statement mentioned that one member was arrested by Norwegian authorities while travelling to Sweden, and another died after collapsing, leaving nine members unaccounted for. This incident has tarnished the reputation of our Paralympic Committee and put the lives of these individuals whose images were wrongly posted in the media at risk.