Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kwesi Nyantakyi has broken his silence for the first time after the controversial corruption scandal in the Ghana Football that led to his resignation and ban from football.
Speaking on Accra-based Net 2 TV, the embattled former GFA boss said “Tiger Eye”, the organisation behind the investigations, was a criminal organisation that is involved in “wanton breakages of the law”.
He claimed that the private investigation firm does not have a license to operate, adding that “Tiger Eye’s activities are akin to the terrorist group, ISIS”.
Mr Nyantakyi has not spoken to anyone since the exposé broke to subsequently result in his ban from FIFA.
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Below is the complete conversation between Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi and the host of the show:
Host: Good morning Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi. Happy New Year and welcome to our show.
Nyantakyi: Many Happy returns.
Host: We were speaking to Hon Kennedy Agyapong and how investigative journalist, Anas, conducts his investigations. We said so many things and with your case, the money we were told you took as a bribe. We want to know all that and how you worked with them [Tiger Eye PI] and even the module they used to get you.
Nyantakyi: When the matter came up, I released a press statement and so what I’m about to say will only add up to the statement and more details. The whole issue was a contrite scheme just to put me in trouble, disgrace me or set me up. The late Ahmed met one Abudulai Alhassan, the chairman of the Northern Regional Football Association and lied to him that he works with a Sheihk in Dubai. He said he had completed [University of Ghana,] Legon and has worked in Dubai with the Sheikh who has a lot of money and wants to invest in Ghana football by sponsoring the Ghana Premier League. We met with Ahmed for like 7 to 8 times at Adjringanor.
So he told me one day that the Sheikh wanted to meet me and he promised to get me tickets but failed and later told me to pay for my own ticket after which they would refund. So the money I used for the tickets are my own money and not GFA’s. I met Ahmed on my first trip to Dubai where he told me so many lies including the lie that the so-called Sheihk was indisposed so we postponed the meeting.
Before that, Ahmed met me and one African leader at Golden Tulip. That man travelled all the way from his country to meet with him.
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Host: Mr Nyantakyi, please we have all seen the videos of that documentary, so can you mention the name of that African leader for all of us to know him, was he Oppong Weah?
Mr Nyantakyi: I didn’t want to mention the person’s name because he is a president. So Ahmed promised to help that leader win elections so he promised to invite him to Dubai. When the day arrived, we called Ahmed and his mobile phone was off so the leader insisted that he would travel to Dubai. They stayed there for 5 days in a hotel in Dubai but Ahmed and his Sheikh never showed up till they left, feeling disappointed.
Later when I met the so-called Sheihk in a hotel in Dubai Ahmed told me the hotel was owned by him [Sheihk] but he was never a Sheik. In that hotel, secret cameras were planted in the room where I was with Ahmed while Anas and his team were in another room directing Ahmed on what to say and the questions to ask.
In the Republic of Emirates, it is criminal to record someone without their permission and I must say that we have reported Anas in Dubai and so in the near future, he (Anas) will provide answers to why he would be recording people in Dubai without their permission. He can do those things in Ghana and not in Dubai.
The hotel room I occupied was full of secret cameras and I got to know all these things after the expose. I don’t know why you should set someone up and negotiate with them with baits and trap them. Anas is working because of money because he keeps blackmailing people just for money; what he is doing is actually business.
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Host: Kwesi Nyantakyi, were you actually asked for some amount by Anas or Tiger Eye PI in order to drop the story?
Nyantakyi: Oh yes, they asked a lawyer who teaches at Legon to contact me. Through him, they asked me to pay 150,000 US Dollars but I said I didn’t have the money and that’s why all these came about. They were even demanding 400,000 US dollars because the project he did about me was a sponsored project. People at the GFA who wanted to see my career ruined sponsored Anas exposé with $400,000 to do what they did.
The money he gave me at Dubai, he claimed was 65,000 US dollars but he has to prove that because I received 40,000 US Dollars and that was also captured in the video so he should prove that he gave me more than that.
Host: So being the victim of Anas and his group’s style of work, did you see the Ahmed with your eye?
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Nyantakyi: I met Ahmed several times; he even came to my house once. He was always dressed in different colours of jalabia [a Moslem attire] throughout my encounters with him. When he comes, he is so jittery the moment he receives a call. He receives about 10 to 20 calls anytime he is with me but it never occurred to me he was involved in such acts.
Host: So you saw him [Ahmed] several times?
Nyantakyi: Not once, the first time I met him was at Cocoa Vanila in Accra here and we met subsequently about 10 times. On one occasion, Abu brought him to my house and I met him twice in Dubai.
Host: So did you meet with Anas too?
Nyantakyi: No no, the kind of work Anas does, he behaves like [Jihadi group] ISIS; you don’t meet him. I met only Ahmed. I never met Anas or any other person from his outfit and then at the end of their so-called investigations, Anas and Tiger Eye claim responsibility for the outcome.
“Tiger Eye is a criminal organisation who is on wanton breakages of the law. They don’t have a license to do what they’re doing. Just bouncing on people’s rights, recording them here and there without giving them opportunities to save themselves. You are already condemned before you are even heard.