Minister Hijacked World Cup Role

Outspoken 2014 World cup media committee member Christopher Opoku yesterday told the commission of Inquiry probing the Brazil fiasco that former Sports minister Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah’s ‘multiple roles’ kept some of them in the dark.

He mentioned that he actually became redundant due to the ex Minister ’s assumption of the spokesperson position for the Brazil World Cup.

The freelance journalist, who was tasked to serve as the mouthpiece for Ghana’s participation in the 2014 World Cup, said he was not privy to any information regarding preparations for the soccer festival.

He told the commission that the situation made him decide to quit, but the former sports chief prevailed upon him to stay on.

He said the circumstances which compelled him to quit persisted after the Minister had apologized to him; but he stayed on and all he did was to attend meetings.

“I was kept in the dark and was not being fed with any information. I was being denied the tools I needed to work with. In fact, I had no portfolio.

“There was absolutely nothing for us to do, most of the information were coming from the Minister,” said Opoku.

And when asked why he declined the invitation to travel to Brazil for the showpiece, Mr Opoku said, “I had a call to travel to Brazil for the World
Cup, and that I would be catered for, but I refused because I didn’t feel part of the committee.”

On the issue of selection of website developer, he said the committee settled on Soft Click instead of Gocell and Dominion Technology for cost effective reasons.