Mr Douglas Seidu, the counsel for Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, a former president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and another person, charged with conspiracy to commit crime and fraud, yesterday told the Accra High Court that his client did not demand for $65,000 from Tiger Eye PI as the state has alleged.
The Attorney General, represented by Mrs Victoria Asiedu, a Principal State Attorney, had accused Mr Nyantakyi of receiving $65,000 from the Tiger Eye PI as inducement for showing favour to Medgulf as a potential sponsor of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) and to provide business opportunities for Medgulf in Ghana.
But his lawyer, who also represented Mr Abdulai Alhassan, a former Northern Regional Chairman of the GFA, said the prosecution allegedly gave the money to Mr Nyantakyi as inducement and that he did not ask for it.
Mr Seidu said this yesterday when he urged the court to grant his client bail, arguing that the former GFA boss and Mr Alhassan were known both locally and internationally.
He said the accused were not flight risk and would avail themselves to stand trial if granted bail.
Consequently, the presiding judge, Justice Comfort Teasame granted the accused GH₵1million bail each, with three sureties, one to be justified.
As part of the bail condition, Justice Teasame ordered the accused to report every Friday at the Police Headquarters.
Mr Nyantakyi was secretly recorded in a video by Tiger PI in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2017 in which he allegedly held himself as potential public officer who could influence President Nana Akufo-Addo, Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Minister of Roads and Highways and Minister of Transport to promote the business interest of Medgulf in Ghana.
The facts according to the prosecution are that Tiger Eye PI, a private international private investigation agency presented itself to the accused as the representative of H.H Sheikh Hammad Al Thani, a member of the ruling Royal Family of Qatar, following the outcome of investigations the agency conducted into the activities of the GFA in 2016.
Mrs Asiedu said Tiger Eye PI also carried themselves as representative of the Chairman of Medgulf Company Limited (Medgulf), a company in Qatar and told the accused that the company was desirous in sponsoring the Ghana Premier League and other GFA activities as well as infrastructure construction, oil refinery and banking, among others in Ghana.
She said Tiger Eye PI held series of meetings with the accused in Ghana and Dubai, in which the accused were secretly recorded.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
