Exposing The Lies And Conspiracies Against Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah

Exposing The Lies And Conspiracies Against Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah – The Bare Facts!

This piece is being written after weeks and months of intense investigations, discussions with some World Cup committee members, Government officials, Party officials, some FA officials, Sports writers and people associated with the Brazil 2014 Commission as well other strategic stakeholders in the sports fraternity.

The Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah can easily pass, without a shadow of doubt, as the most vilified politician currently serving in government. He has unduly suffered barrage of attacks from media practitioners, political commentators and social media activists, just name it. What is surprising though is that these attacks seem to be well coordinated and structured to achieve the maximum damaging effect on his political career.

From the period preceding the Brazil 2014 World Cup, through the tournament, to his appearance before the Presidential Commission and up till today, the gentleman’s character has been battered, subjected to all kinds of ludicrous allegations and an unfair abuse in the court of public opinion. I can imagine the kind of trauma he has suffered at the hands of his conspirators and accusers. The amazing aspect is that in all these, his side of the story has been deliberately ignored or given very little attention, whiles the lies have rather been amplified and given unbridled prominence.

PRE-WORLD CUP ISSUES

As far as I can remember, the fabricated stories against Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah started three (3) months before the 2014 World Cup. Even before the Ghana Football Association could submit its budget to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to be forwarded to Cabinet through the Chief of Staff for approval, there was so much hullaballoo about Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah squandering or embezzling World Cup funds. All his explanations of his inability to speak to a budget that had not yet been presented to him and efforts to restrain the media from engaging in such prejudice fell on deaf ears. How a Minister of State can divert funds from a budget that was yet to be presented and approved is a question only his detractors can answer. It defies simple logic and standard procedure, yet such baseless allegations were aggressively pushed and allowed to fester. Later when the budget was presented and approved, the minister held a press conference to give the details of the budget through Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, yet the attacks continued unabated.

One of the funniest allegations carried in some newspapers is that Hon. Afriyie-Ankrah was diverting the World Cup funds in order to build a war chest to contest President John Mahama as flag bearer in the NDC presidential primaries in the run up to the 2016 elections – an allegation that was and is still totally untrue. How much more character assassination can one man suffer? Nonetheless, the worst was yet to come.

Other sections of the media were calling for his removal from the Youth and Sports Ministry based on the ridiculous excuse that in the previous World Cups, the Minister under whose tenure the team qualified was not the same minister who led the team into the tournament. Clearly, this bitter anti-Afriyie-Ankrah agenda was laced with a lot of malice.

In the midst of all these deliberate provocations and malicious publications, Afriyie-Ankrah kept his usual cool and focused on the task ahead – mobilizing resources for the World Cup. Unlike the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, government did not provide any seed money for the preparations for the 2014 World Cup. This posed a huge challenge to the ministry’s efforts at preparing adequately for the tournament. Yet, the Hon. Afriyie-Ankrah braced the challenge and worked tirelessly to raise funds from corporate organizations. Even in this noble task, he was not spared the usual sabotage that he had been suffering all along. There was an active campaign to prevent corporate bodies from sponsoring the tournament with the thoughtless excuse that the funds would be squandered.

In the end, he brought the famous World Cup Ambassadors on board to help raise funds on a voluntary basis. Despite all the difficulties, the ministry was able to raise funds to send supporters to Brazil. Such a feat from a hardworking minister deserves commendation and not the callous manner in which the minister was unjustifiably crucified.

2014 BRAZIL WORLD CUP SAGA

The Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah’s reputation suffered even more severe calculated damage when the tournament started in Brazil. It was widely circulated in the media that his wife was awarded a juicy contract as the sole caterer preparing food for supporters in Brazil. These baseless allegations have been proven to be absolutely false. The proceedings of the World Cup Commission clearly showed that neither the minister nor any member of his family had anything to do with the catering. As a matter of fact, there was an Events, Grounds and Logistics Committee with its own chairman, which screened over thirteen (13) caterers through a transparent process based on experience, cost, ability to pre-finance, tax clearance, employee health clearance certificate, among other others, after which three (3) caterers were selected. So why were some mischievous elements making the untruthful claim that the minister’s wife was the caterer selected for the tournament?

Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah’s mother was also alleged to have been supplying Black Stars’ replica jerseys. It turned out that his mother who is a 74-year old pensioner, lives in London and had absolutely nothing to do with the World Cup organization. She was equally shocked to hear her name being bandied around all over mainstream and social media. At this point, one wonders why such wicked lies would be told against the minister. The answer is not farfetched–give a dog a bad name and hang it. The agenda was to make Afriyie-Ankrah look bad to pave way for his exit from the ministry and government.

Another shocking cooked story which was widely circulated was the alleged bad conditions under which the Ghanaian supporters were hosted in Brazil. The supporters were reported to have only one toilet facility at the camp and had to queue for long hours just to attend to nature’s call. To make this wicked falsehood look authentic, a picture was taken of supporters who were in a queue for their buffet lunch and extensively circulated as those queuing to use a toilet facility. That was how low some people were prepared to descend just to succeed in waging a dirty media campaign against Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah.

In addition, it was reported that the supporters were hungry and did not have sufficient food to eat. Again, pictorial and video evidence exhibited at the Commission, including testimonies from the supporters themselves, showed that they were fed with sumptuous meals three (3) times a day.

Another callous allegation was that the supporters had no decent accommodation in Brazil and some had to sleep on the bare floor. In fact, not only did the supporters have a decent place to camp; the camp facility could house up to one thousand (1,000) people comfortably so it was not a problem at all to host all the six hundred and ninety-six (696) core supporters there. The supporter’s camp had adequate facilities including a spacious dining hall, with a large swimming pool, all kinds of modern indoor games and other recreational facilities. That notwithstanding, the supporters stayed in air-conditioned rooms with decent toilet facilities and no supporter cleaned his/her room since there were enough cleaners to change sheets and keep the rooms clean. Also, there were fully air-conditioned, luxurious buses at the disposal of the supporters who wanted to go shopping or sight-seeing. Indeed, the camp was a home away from home for the supporters.

At the same time that the supporters were enjoying themselves and taking full advantage of these decent, modern facilities, the Ghanaian media back home was buzzing with allegations of bad treatment being meted out to the supporters in Brazil. To ascertain the veracity of these allegations, the Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth and Sports, led by the Chairman, Hon. Woyome and the Minority Ranking Member for Youth and Sports, Hon. Agambila embarked upon a fact finding mission to the supporters’ camp in Brazil. The MPs went to the camp with camera men from GTV and TV3 and they were shocked to find out that all the negative stories being reported back home were complete fabrications – again, another proof of a dirty anti-Afriyie-Ankrah agenda. When the video evidence was presented at the Commission, the Commissioners were visibly surprised to find out that so many untruths had been peddled about the supporters’ welfare.

So, one would ask, if available HARD FACTS supported by incontrovertible documentary evidence was available, why did some people decide to put out deliberate falsehood against the minister? What effect was the untrue negative reportage supposed to achieve?

The most despicable fabrication was about the minister having had an affair with one popular Ghanaian actress and paying her $20,000 USD per session and also splashing dollars on the hips of Brazilian women who were dancing in a night club. Indisputable available facts indicate that the minister NEVER met any of the female actresses or ambassadors during the entire tournament and NEVER went to any night club. Yet some unscrupulous people shamelessly put it out on mainstream and social media that they SAW the minister in these acts – something that NEVER HAPPENED.

Again, the minister was accused of engaging in street fights with supporters in Brazil, when indeed it was the minister who rather organized funds to convey supporters who did not board a bus provided for them at the time they were supposed to, because they were hanging around in town and exploring Brazil. What more proof does one need to draw the conclusion that Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah has only been a victim of media terrorism championed by some heartless people to suit their inordinate personal vendetta against the minister?

• APPEARANCE FEE DEBACLE

This article will never be complete without touching on the infamous appearance fee saga, player revolts and the subsequent flying of cash from Ghana to Brazil – a situation which caused Ghana international embarrassment of gargantuan magnitude. Again, Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah was blamed for this unfortunate incident. However, the facts points to the contrary. It is public knowledge that Cabinet approved $82,500 as appearance fee for the Black Star players. The presidency then sent two emissaries, Hon. Kojo Adu-Asare and Hon. Dr. Mustapha Ahmed to deliver Cabinet’s decision to the team in Serbia and Montenegro. The players out rightly rejected the offer and insisted on taking $100,000. This stalemate continued throughout the period of the team’s preparations in the US and it remained unresolved until they arrived in Brazil.

Per the Constitutional powers invested in the minister, he had NO AUTHORITY to vary or change a cabinet decision so he decided to appeal to the patriotic conscience of the players and even reminded them of the huge international exposure and potential of getting better club contracts when they played at the World Cup stage. His appeals fell on death ears – yet some people found it expedient to blame him. Subsequently, the Vice President, Mr. Paa Kwesi Amisa-Arthur intervened in the deadlock and assured the players of government’s preparedness to pay the $100,000.

My painstaking investigations revealed that based on the assurances he got from the authorities in Ghana, the minister promised the players of receiving their appearance fees through the agreed Unibank Master Card even before the second group match. By some strange circumstances, a few of the players claimed they could not access the money on their cards in Brazil and this created a lot of suspicion in camp against the FA officials and the minister. This led to a revolt in camp with the players threatening not to train before the last group match, a threat they actually carried out despite an intervention from the President of the Republic himself. How then will anyone blame the minister for the agitations in the camp?

The minister, sensing danger and humiliation for the country, decided to dispatch the Chief Director and Chief Accountant of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to Ghana to fast-track the process of arranging for the cash – a very wise decision by all standards. Due to flight connection problems, the two arrived in Ghana after three (3) days. The minister then moved out of the camp to join the country’s ambassador to Brazil as well as the Governor of Natal to make all the necessary security and transport arrangements since it was inevitable that the money was going to be flown to Brazil. For the sake of some sensitive information which I unraveled during my investigations, I will desist from divulging the full details of all the arrangements made in Ghana to secure the money.

But one incident which cannot escape the attention of the public is the bizarre circumstances under which the cash which was on a plane on the tarmac at Kotoka International Airport, had to delay for three (3) odd days before it was flown to Brazil, thereby further heightening tensions in camp and making the already bad situation even worse. I found out that the initial air craft that was supposed to fly the money to Brazil was “AIRCONGO.” However, there were several inconsistent excuses given why the plane could not fly. Among such flimsy pretexts, was that the air craft did not have the landing rights or proper permission to land in Brazil. The air craft was also said to have some documentation problems with the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority. My checks indicate that none of these reasons were true. Hence, I was totally shocked when I found out that the same AIR CONGO plane which was alleged as not having landing rights in Brazil, was used to convey the last batch of supporters from Ghana to Brazil to watch our last group match against Portugal.

Knowing all these, I am still at a loss why the Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah was blamed to the bone for the flight delays in Ghana when the gentleman was far away in Brazil making frantic internal transport and security arrangements and waiting anxiously for the arrival of the money. I have no iota of doubt that certain “powerful forces” conspired to unduly delay the appearance fee of the players with the sole aim of distracting the team from its focus, creating tensions in camp, a revolt and the ultimate failure of the Black Stars to shine at the World Cup. The devilish intention behind the plot is not farfetched – Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah’s failure at the World Cup would make him look incompetent in the eyes of the public and necessitate his booting out from government. No wonder there were consistent, persistent and sustained media attacks on the minister with such remarkable aggression and energy.

I am even more convinced that the minister’s woes were internally triggered when I take into consideration, the unusual refusal of the even pro-government newspapers to rise to the defense of the minister. In some instances, some of these pro-government newspapers were the ones leading the charge against Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah. What happened to solidarity from Comrades to a fellow innocent Comrade?

POST WORLD CUP ISSUES

Recently, after a very successful NDC National Delegates’ Congress in Kumasi, in which the minister played a key role in the organization together with Messrs. Totobi Quakyi, Bede Zieden, Baba Jamal, Nii Djangmah Vanderpuje, among other party stalwarts, a reporter from Joy Fm came out with a false publication which was circulated extensively in other print and electronic media, claiming that the minister and his committee members had received “KICKBACKS” from Evolution International, a company that had provided fan parks for the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

The journalist’s attention was drawn to the fact that a comparison of the signatures on the payment vouchers indicated clearly that the so called voucher written in the name of the minister was forged; and that the supposed cheque numbers on the two invoices bore serial numbers ranging from 031 to 081, implying that on that same day, that small company had issued fifty different (50) cheques – a situation which was not possible. When these discrepancies were pointed out to Joy Fm and a report made to the police by Evolution International because of the issue of the forged payment vouchers and signatures, the reporter was invited to the Ministries Police Station but he refused to honour the police invitation.

After all, the intended damage to Hon. Afriyie-Ankrah had been done already, since the false publication received extensive coverage in the print and electronic media. My checks indicate that the matter is not over yet and it is still pending before the police. So there you have it again - another trumped-up story against Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah. Yet, there is more to come.

If anyone had any iota of doubt about the fact that there is a well orchestrated, coordinated and funded attempt to soil the hard won reputation of the Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah for whatever reasons, then the most recent bogus publication by footy-ghana.com should erase all such doubts about this diabolic, wicked and devilish agenda against a young man who has toiled and sacrificed his entire adult life for the NDC party.

On Thursday, 5th February, 2015, footy-ghana.com, a very popular sports website, erroneously claimed that they could CONFIRM that Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, former Minister of Youth and Sports, led a contingent of Ghanaian supporters to Equatorial Guinea. When the minister confronted the editor, Christopher Opoku, he swore that his sources were VERY AUTHENTIC and RELIABLE. The minister then pointed out to the editor that he had neither travelled to Equatorial Guinea, nor had he been in any way connected to the matter not even remotely. Christopher Opoku then retracted the story and apologized to the minister. The website subsequently published the retraction and apology to the minister. Please check:

http://www.footy,-ghana.com/read.php?linkname=mtn+fa+cup&linkid=1&read=4470&PHPSESSID=5bd13a2d51e5ecfb34eecf4ed43ff6e6#.VOOicyz4uM8

It is very possible that Mr. Christopher Opoku thought he had genuine information from a trusted source and so was very confident about the authenticity of the story. The question to ask therefore is why in the wildest imagination of someone, would such TOTALLY FICTITIOUS and DECEPTIVE information be provided to a journalist for onward publication? If the minister did not have a direct access to Christopher Opoku and had delayed in confronting the journalist, this story, like many others would have found itself into other social media platforms and mainstream media with very damaging consequences on the minister’s character, with accompanying insults, denigration and embarrassment.

So I ask again, WHY ALL THE LIES AGAINST HON. ELVIS AFRIYIE-ANKRAH?

Were all the intense unwarranted and well synchronized media attacks and unbridled pummeling through well choreographed stories on radio, TV and social media just mere coincidences? Of course not!

What amazes me most in all these is the DEAFENING SILENCE on the part of the Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah to publicly speak on this matter and set the records straight himself. Is his silence an act of loyalty to the President and his party? Or is it because of the oath of secrecy that he has sworn? Silence they say is golden, but this rather loud silence is suspicious. Could the minister be protecting someone by remaining silent whiles his hard won reputation is dragged in the mud? Who is the minister protecting? Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah is a respectfully humble man, but is his keeping mute not serving as a discredit to him?

Whatever it is, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah must know that his reputation has been battered so badly with deliberate falsehood that a lot of right-thinking people in and outside Ghana have a negative perception about him.

To conclude, I wish to urge the minister not to jeopardize his political future by remaining silent especially when the allegations leveled against him are manifestly untrue. The least I can do is to write this piece. The rest is left to the Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah himself to decide.

So, like we say in Ghana, over to you, Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah.

Stay tuned for part two (2) of this write up which will delve into shocking revelations about the personalities and motives behind these sinister and roguish orchestrations against the Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah.

I remain yours truly,

OSAGYEFO KWAME FRIMPONG

(+233) 0574950674

(osagyefokp@gmail.com)