Editorial News of Friday, 15 January 1999

Source: --

Graphic Sports

"Witness exposed Georgido" is the Graphic Sports headline on the Yaw Sakyi transfer saga, which the paper exposed last week.

The story says Michael Kesse, one of the key witnesses in the Yaw Sekyi transfer scandal, has expressed disgust at the efforts by the Hearts Of Oak Chief Executive, Mr. Harry Zakkour, to wreck the case through the intervention of Mr. George Aduse Poku, alias George.

Kesse, a teacher at the Oforikrom L/A Primary School in Kumasi alleges that Georgido had made moves to retrieve the transfer certificate, believed to be fake, from Mr. Kwaku Adu, who is alleged to have sponsored the transfer deal.

Mr. Kese the paper said made these disclosures when he called at the Graphic offices in Kumasi to throw light on the role he in the transfer scandal in which coach Ouattara, is alleged to have collected $20,000 from Mr. Adu and paid it to Mr. Harry Zakkour, to secure a transfer certificate.

In a back-page story " Machomen storm club's meeting. Led by Alhaji Hearts" the paper says the depth to which Ghana soccer had sunk was openly manifested at the Accra Sports Stadium last Wednesday afternoon when the two factions within Hearts of Oak clashed, with one of the factions brandishing "machomen" during a meeting to outline plans for the forth coming session.

The meeting was peaceful until the arrival of Hearts' Limited board secretary, Ernest Thompson and Alhaji Suleman Briamah a.k.a Alhaji Hearts. The paper said upon meeting Messrs. Sylvester Mensah and T.V. Musah, both members of the newly inaugurated Management Committee of Hearts Supporting Club, Mr. Thompson immediately charged towards the two men and accused them of causing chaos in the club.

After walking into the meeting room to remove his jacket, Thompson's rage turned on T.V Musah when Mr. Mensah walked away from the scene.

However the atmosphere became charged when Alhaji Hearts later appeared with over 20 burly-built, middle-aged men following him ostensibly to put the fear of God in Musah and Mensah.

According to the paper, one of the men who identified himself as a supporter of the club said they were brought in from the club's training grounds to harass and scare away the rival faction.