The National Paralympic Committee (NPC) has clarified issues concerning the widely reported abscondment of a Ghana Paralympic team in Norway.
“The NPC-Ghana wishes to seize the opportunity to correct this misinformation and misrepresentation, which is making the rounds in the media and at this moment.”
According to the committee the information in circulation is false and maliciously misleading as the said team is not the Ghana Paralympic Team.
It noted that the real team returned home from all trips and competitions they have featured in this year.
“The NPC-Ghana wants to put on record that between January and July this year, with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, its potential Paralympic athletes from various disciplines were sponsored to compete in a number of qualifiers across Africa and Europe, notably Egypt, Morocco, France, Egypt, and Georgia.
“All athletes and officials involved in these trips returned to Ghana after their competitions. The purported Ghana Paralympic Team, as captured in the letter and carried out by the Media, is impersonation and misrepresentation.”
It further stated that it was not aware of the purported Ghana Paralympic Team trip to Norway for an international competition and therefore had no hand in sanctioning any application for their trip to Norway.
“The NPC-Ghana has not made or caused to be made any application to the Norwegian Embassy to facilitate any Paralympic Team’s travel to Norway, let alone sponsored a team to participate in any international competition in that country in recent times or in times past in the history of the NC-Ghana.
“The NPC-Ghana was not aware of or had any prior notice of the purported Ghana Paralympic Team trip to Norway for an international competition as part of their preparations for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Neither did this office facilitate and endorse the said group’s trip and purported competition in Norway.”
Fake Documents
It said preliminary investigations showed that the said team forged their documents with the help of Theodore Mawu Viworor and Ernest Yaw Ayisi of the Ernestay Disability Foundation.
It added, “The matter is already in the domain of the country’s security agencies, i.e. National Security and Ghana Police and all those individuals involved and behind this illicit act will be fished out and brought to face the full rigours of the law.”
The Committee further blamed the Norwegian Embassy for failing to exercise due diligence by not cross-checking the authenticity or otherwise of the application before processing, approving and eventually issuing the visas to the said Team to facilitate their entry to Norway and subsequently to other Schengen States.
Background
The Ministry of National Security in a letter dated July 3, 2024, informed the Ministry of Youth and Sports that a team of Ghanaian paralympic athletes and technical officials had absconded to other Schengen states in Europe after failing to participate in the Fjordkraft Bergren Marathon in Oslo, Norway.
The 11-member team comprising a head coach, welfare officer, equipment manager, trainer, masseur and six paralympic athletes arrived in Oslo on April 25, 2024, to compete in the marathon but did not show up for the event, per the letter.
One of them identified as Nana Antwi was arrested while attempting to travel from Norway to Sweden by train after a search operation was launched.
Meanwhile, it said the purported team’s head coach, George Gyasi Gyamfi, collapsed and subsequently died on May 17 at the Oslo University Hospital.
The remaining team members unaccounted for are Amanda Mireku (welfare officer), Felicia Animah Mensah (Equipment Manager), Mathias Essien (athlete), Emmanuel A. Erigotoya Atanga (athlete), Patrick Arhin (trainer), Godwin Obiri (athlete), Scotches Ofori (athlete) and Sylvester Ando.
Source:opemsuo.com