Kumasi (Ashanti) 27th October 99

Kumasi Asante Kotoko left Accra for Hamburg, Germany on Monday minus head coach Aboubakar Ouattara who was picked on Sunday evening by the police.

Ouattara, signed on by Kotoko at the end of the first round matches in the just ended league, is charged for defrauding two people under the pretext of sending them to Germany on Kotoko?s trip.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge and Tribunal chairman, Mr. Joseph Abanga, remanded him in custody for a week.

According to Chief Inspector Fabian K. Afesi, Ouattara promised one Akwasi Fosu 28, a ball boy of the club and Emmanuel Agyeman 20, former student of Adisadel College who is an ardent supporter of the club, to include them in Kotoko?s squad for Hamburg at a fee of 2,000 dollars each.

Ouattara is said to have promised to finish with the documentation for the trip within two weeks of taking the money but could not honour his promise and resorted to playing hide and seek with the boys after receiving it.

With the departure date of Kotoko drawing near and sensing that they were not part of the squad, the victims reported the matter to the Kumasi Police Buffalo Unit who arrested coach.

Mr. A.A Amankwah, counsel for the accused admitted that his client has collected the amount but said under an undertaking made between Ouattara and the complainants, the accused was to return from the training tour of Kotoko before addressing the issue of the complainants trip abroad.

Mr. Amankwah tendered the undertaking as evidence in court but the Tribunal chairman rejected it and remanded the accused in custody stating multiple fraud cases against him.

Speculations are rife in Kumasi that the Kotoko head coach would be put on ice on arrival of the club from Hamburg in the wake of the embarrassment that he has caused the team.