Muntari swerves Commission; Claims to have no skype facility

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry has decided to ignore suspended Black Stars midfielder, Sulley Ali Muntari, and go ahead with its recommendations based on the evidence available to it, following the player’s indifference towards the fact-finding body.

The three-man commission took that tough decision yesterday after numerous efforts to get the AC Milan midfielder to tell his side of the story fell on rocks.

Speaking to the Graphic Sports yesterday, a member of the commission, Moses Foh-Amoaning, said the investigative body deemed it necessary to give Muntari a chance to tell his side of the story regarding his physical assault on the Black Stars Management Committee member, Moses ‘Mospacka’ Armah.

That opportunity to testify, he said, was crucial so after the victim and some officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) had been given the opportunity to give evidence before the commission on the matter.

According to Mr Foh-Amoaning, the commission tried its best to engage Muntari on Skype just like it did for Michael Essien but the player proved evasive with some flimsy excuses.

He said when Muntari eventually told the commission that it did not have the Skype facility, the commission spoke with his father to try and persuade his son to co-operate but that intervention was to no avail.

The Ghana School of Law lecturer and renowned broadcaster revealed that the  player’s behaviour left the commission with no choice but to go ahead with its recommendations as it races against time.

The  media officer of the commission, Thomas Boakye Agyemang, corroborated the story and said though Muntari was initially co-operative through his local solicitor, things changed later as he began to dribble them one time too many.

He noted that the commission did the best it could in the circumstance to speak to the player, but all those attempts were frustrated.

“Now we have no choice but to write our report based on the evidence we have,” he stressed.

He disclosed that the commission was saddled with the headache of writing its report based on the evidence of a total of 85 witnesses who appeared before it during the three-month exercise.

The commission, chaired by Court of Appeal judge, Justice Senyo Dzamefe, and has Mr Kofi Anokye Owusu Darko as its other member, initially had November 14 as the deadline to present its report to the President of the Republic, John Mahama, who instituted it.