An official of Ghana Premier League giants Asante Kotoko has been fingered in a fresh bribery allegation by retired referee Robert Tawiah Mensah.
The retired referee has claimed that an official of the Porcupine Warriors approached him to facilitate bribing referees during their Special Competition match against Ashantigold over the weekend.
According to the retired referee, one Kofi Oduro, popularly known as Hon. Sheeshela, who is known to be a close confidante of Kotoko chairman Dr. Kwame Kyei is demanding a refund of a supposed GH 8,000 he paid to the match officials.
He claims Sheeshela has been on him pestering him for a refund of the money he gave the referees after Kotoko lost the game.
In a dramatic turn of events, the retired referee admits facilitating the payment of the money to the referees despite claiming not knowling the exact amount givent to the referees since according to him, the money was ‘wrapped in a polythene bag.’
“It’s true that before the Ashanti Gold SC match with Kotoko, monies were given to the match officials by a Kotoko official,” he said.
“I was in Techiman when Sheeshela came to me with a Nissan Versa with registration number AS 2988 – 18 and introduced himself as a member of the operations team of Kotoko,” he told Oyerepa FM.
“He [Sheeshela] said he has money for the officials led by Referee Ali Alhassan, so a meeting should be held in Tamale since the referees said they can’t meet us in Techiman after I called them.
“We met the Referees at the Tamale STC yard and gave them an undisclosed amount of money which was in a black polythene bag.
“He gave me 500 cedis for helping him to meet the referees because he said his team needed the points badly.
“After the match, he [Sheeshela] called me that he wants to retrieve his money from the referees because they failed to deliver as they promised.
“He called the referees also and told them he needs his 8000 cedis because they couldn’t help his side to beat Ashanti Gold,” he added.
With the Ghana FA Normalization Committee working assiduously to restructure Ghana football, the damning allegation is a massive test for them to probe further into the matter.
