Graphic man manhandled at GFA press confab

The Ashanti Regional Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Daniel Kenu, had a hellish experience last Wednesday night at the Miklin Hotel in Kumasi after asking what officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) described as an unpleasant question at a Black Stars’ press conference.

A day ear lier, a group of young men had demanded from the skipper of the Black Stars, Asamoah Gyan, at the Baba Yara Stadium during one of the team’s training sessions, to produce the missing hip-life star and bosom friend of Gyan, Castro, who was drowned at Ada Foa recently.

The fans alleged, among other things, that the musician had been used for rituals but two of the ‘demonstrators’ were picked up by the police and were later cautioned and released.

Sequel to that, Mr Kenu at last Wednesday’s press conference urged the player to seize the opportunity to tell Ghanaians his side of the story to put the matter to rest and also correct any such erroneous impression.

Unfortunately, the question was described as being unpalatable, since Ghana was preparing to play Uganda in an AFCON 2015 qualifier today and so the team officials thought it could disorganise the player.

So, the FA president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, urged the player not to answer the question because the allegations were purely metaphysical and, therefore, could not be proven.

Despite being infuriated by the question, none of the officials and players at the high table confronted the journalist, but rather a group of young men, some of whom were described as radio presenters in Kumasi, literally heckled, bastardised and lampooned Mr Kenu.

Some physically confronted him to question his loyalty.

Surprisingly, however, the FA president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, head coach Kwasi Appiah, and his assistant, Maxwell Konadu, who had separate engagements with Mr Kenu after the press conference, were nice and very polite to him but said their only problem was that the timing was wrong.

But minutes after they had left, the strange men, who the Daily Graphic later learnt were loyal friends of Gyan, had positioned themselves to pounce on Kenu.

Sensing danger, Kenu pretended to use the washroom downstairs and sneaked through the back door to the car park to escape, misplacing his reading glasses and wallet in the process.