Former Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide has questioned the establishment of a secretariat at the National Sports Authority (NSA).
He also challenged an appointment he says falls outside the authority’s organisational structure.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, October 12, he demanded clarity on who is responsible for the 2026 World Cup visa controversy.
“But we must be clear as to who was responsible for what in this case, and a secretariat has been established at the National Sports Authority (NSA). An appointment alien to the organogram has been made.”
Mr Hadzide, who served in the Akufo-Addo government, pointed to alleged payments and official correspondence as grounds for scrutiny.
“You are having people confessing that they paid money,” he said.
He said letters passed through the Sports and Recreation Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry to the embassy. Journalists, who unearthed the visa scandal, he added, now have those documents.
“So you see that if somebody is being blamed, either the minister or the NSA, here’s a basis for that blame.”
His comments come amid allegations that people associated with the NSA collected about $623,000 to facilitate World Cup visas. The authority has denied authorisation for the collection of money or the operation of a visa facilitation office.
The Sports Ministry has also denied wrongdoing. It maintains that forwarding documents through diplomatic channels did not amount to selecting applicants or guaranteeing visas. The police CID is investigating the allegations.
Mr Hadzide defended the NPP’s criticism of Sports Minister Kofi Adams and Yaw Ampofo Ankrah. He said it rested on signed letters and accounts from people who claimed to have paid money.
He contrasted that with his experience during the 2018 Australian visa controversy.
“Unfortunately, in my own case, I didn’t find the basis, but I carried the cross.”
That controversy involved Ghanaians allegedly posing as journalists to enter Australia for the Commonwealth Games. Akufo-Addo suspended Hadzide in April 2018. He was subsequently cleared and reinstated in July.
Hadzide argued that no one had publicly established that he was being paid for travel to Australia. He called for a reassessment of the episode.
“So for me, there should be clarity now on the 2018 so-called Australia visa scandal,” he said.