Litina chases Travel Matters over $200,000

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Litina Travel and Tours, Ernestina Abrokwa, introduced another dimension to the Black Stars’ World Cup campaign yesterday by demanding her share of the over $200,000 earned by Travel Matters from flying the team back home after the Brazil 2014 fiasco.

She said her investigations revealed that the Stars contingent of 71 players and officials joined the last chartered flight jointly hired by Litina and Travel Matters from Natal to Accra on June 29, 2014.

Litina’s evidence

Ms Abrokwa told the three-man Dzamefe Commission that consultations by consultant Jones Alhassan-Abu and the flight manifest had revealed that Ivan Bruce Cudjoe, CEO of Travel Matters, actually entered into a deal with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, to airlift the stranded players and officials home.

She said her checks indicated that Mr Cudjoe charged $5,500 per head for 18 business class passengers and $2,500, 53 each for other passengers, totalling $231,500.

She stressed that Mr Cudjoe was supposed to pay her half that amount based on a memorandum of understanding (MoOU) as the flight was one of the three Ethiopian Airlines chartered aircraft the two of them hired to fly their clients and Ghanaian supporters to Brazil.

She said the last flight had many empty seats, following the failure of some Ghanaian supporters to return home, and Mr Cudjoe capitalised on that to bail out desperate players and officials.

The frustrated witness, however, complained that not only had Mr Cudjoe failed to fulfil his part of the agreement but he had also refused to pick her calls since returning from Brazil.

Root of partnership

The Litina CEO told the commission that with the experience gained from the previous World Cup and the Ghana-England international friendly in 2011 and AFCON 2013, she travelled to Brazil in May last year to study the terrain in anticipation of business oportunities ahead of Ghana’s third World Cup qualification.

She later won the bid to airlift 90 staff members and stakeholders of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)  and subsequently sought audience with the country manager of Ethiopian Airlines in April this year in a bid to charter a flight to carry them and other supporters to Brazil.

According to her it came to light at that meeting that Samps on Deen of African Origin had also signed a contract for two chartered flights in January but had Failed to pay the deposit since then.

Ms Abrokwa disclosed that the Ethiopian Airlines succeeded in convincing her to add the two aircraft to the other one and she accordingly signed a contract to that effect.

She said while contemplating how to raise the initial deposit of $260,000, Mr Cudjoe expressed interest to work together with her, leading to the signing of an MoU the same day. 

Tendering some relevant documents to support her claim,  the Litina CEO said she advanced 25 per cent of the total flight cost to Ethiopian Airlines on May 8, while Travel Matters also paid its 25 per cent share two days later.

More challenges 

She said she used her own funds to run adverts in the Daily Graphic until Mr Cudjoe told her to stop since he had got enough passengers to fill the aircraft.

Ms Abrokwa said at a point they needed a lifeline to settle the balance or risked forfeiting the deposit. She said she received a call from Cudjoe’s wife to discuss the issue with one Col. Mantey at the Chief of Staff’s office at the Flagstaff House.

Following a fruitful discussion, an account was opened at the Merchant Bank the following day from which $1million was transferred to Ethiopian Airlines to secure the flights for the supporters.

Internal flights

She said she had a smooth arrangement with a local flight, TAM, through the Ghana Embassy in Brasilia, following discussions with the head of the Ghana Mission in Brazil, Mr Paul Cudjoe, for assistance.

Black Starlets chairman

The chairman of the Black Starlets Management Committee, Mr Frederick Eric Crentsil, who opened the day’s sitting, told the commission  the selection of players to constitute the Starlets was a major challenge following the introduction of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

He said the GH¢500 per head for the MRI was a drain on the GFA, which funds the team,  while the government bears the airfare.

He appealed to  the commission to lobby the government to help upgrade the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence for the FA’s national academy project.

In response, Justice Senyo Dzamefe promised that the commission would visit the Prampram facility in the coming days to familiarise itself with the situation on the ground.

C.K. Akonnor’s evidence

Former Black Stars skipper, Charles Kwabla Akonnor, who was sent to Brazil as one of the World Cup ambassadors, described the experience as an unpleasant one following the ordeal they went through.

He disclosed that apart from a $200 per diem allowance given him and the six others, they had to cater for their own internal transport, not to talk of the manner in which they had to sleep at the Fortaleza airport after Ghana’s game against Germany and also watched the game against Portugal on television.

Akonnor said the biggest disappointment for him and his former teammates, Augustine Ahinful and Kwame Ayew, who had two nephews in the Stars set-up, was that they never had the chance to get closer to the team as former internationals.

He said it was so bad that they contemplated returning home at a point, and Kwame Ayew, who could not stand it any longer, left Brazil to attend to a personal business in the US.

Augustine Ahinful

He said their predicament began on their arrival when they were sent to a fully-booked hotel, compelling them to go round for hours looking for accommodation  before they could have a place to lay their heads.

“Sometimes we should be bold enough and tell the supporters there is no money so they should raise their own money,” he said in reference to the practice of airlifting supporters to tournaments by the state.

Today’s sitting

The president of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, will appear before the commission today and tomorrow, followed by his General secretary, Emannuel Gyimah, on Thursday.