Former Minister of Sports Edwin Nii Lante-Vanderpuye has called for an independent investigation into the Norwegian para-athlete scandal, rejecting the Ministry of Sports’ investigation.
Earlier, Minister of Sports Mustapha Ussif announced an investigation into the hiding of a group of suspected Ghanaian para-athletes in Norway, which left one dead and one arrested.
He criticised the Norwegian embassy in Ghana for failing to exercise due diligence in the application process for aspiring athletes.
However, in an interview with City FM’s Eyewitness News, Vanderpuye stressed the need for an independent body to investigate the incident in Norway, referring to the Australian Commonwealth Games visa scandal, which involved government officials.
He questioned the credibility of the Ministry of Sports’ investigation and the suspected complicity of officials.
The former sports minister also criticised the sports minister’s attempt to blame the Norwegian embassy for the lack of due diligence in the application process.
The MP argued that the embassy cannot be held responsible and that an independent investigation is needed to uncover the truth.
He said: “You can’t blame the embassy. What do you expect? We’re talking about an administration where we’ve had a situation where people have effectively been turned into athletes.”
“The Federal Visa Scandal, we all know what happened. Government agencies and state officials were involved in this situation. What happened to this? Anything is possible under this government.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an official confirmation of this so-called fake document issue and other issues. If this hadn’t been exposed, who would have known about it? We have seen this situation before when the issuance of visas was officially complicated because people who wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games in Australia were sent there pretending to be someone they were not, when in fact they were neither athletes nor journalists. So who will be blamed if it happens again with an amputee team when, according to the chairman of the Ghana Sports Association for the Disabled, this team is not our national amputee team? I would like to request that an independent body, and not the Ministry itself, conduct an investigation.”
