Pius Hadzide makes public admission, six years after Ghana police cleared him in Australia visa scandal

Six years ago, the Ghana Police CID, tasked to investigate a disgraceful visa scandal involving some public officials, cleared them of any wrongdoing.

The Deputy Ministers of Youth and Sports, Pius Enam Hadzide and the Board Chairman of the National Sports Authority, Kwadwo Baah Agyeman who were suspended following the allegations, were cleared and reinstated according to a statement from the Presidency referencing a report from the Police CID. But the statement itself said very little at that time.

However in a document obtained by ghanabusinessnews.com, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Hadzide was accused of adding 12 names to Ghana’s list for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. The document was the minutes of the Ghana Olympic Committee’s Emergency Board meeting held on April 23, 2018 called to discuss the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia and the matters arising, especially as regards visa racketeering allegations in the media.

The clearance of the officials was first announced on July 9, 2018, by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo. Speaking at the national delegates’ conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Koforidua, President Akufo-Addo spoke of the determination of the government to continue to strengthen the anti-corruption architecture.

While he spoke, he repeated that the removal of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, and her two Deputies, Amadu Sulley, and Mrs Georgina Opoku Amankwaa,  was without malice – was not premeditated.

He added that the decision was based on the recommendation of the Committee of Enquiry set up by the Chief Justice following separate petitions brought against them.

President Akufo-Addo was emphatic that he would “do his duty – respect due process”.

The police report that cleared Hadzide and co, was never made public.

But in a video widely circulated on social media this week, Hadzide is heard speaking in Twi, at an event that looked like a political campaign event. In the video he told the audience that he took some people from his constituency to Australia, adding that even though the flight from Ghana to Australia is 18 hours. According to him, with the next World Cup coming up in 2025 in the USA, where the flight from Ghana is only seven hours, if the people vote for him to become a Member of Parliament, he would take some of them to the US to go and make a living and send money home.

The widely circulated video

Below is a transcription of the one-and-a-half minute video.

“Elders, do you know something? If you are traveling from Ghana to Australia, you’d sit on the plane for 18 hours. Even that, some people followed me and went. There is a World Cup tournament in the coming New Year 2025 in America.

As for that you arrive in America in only seven hours. Elders. If you want your children to go to America, to make a living and bring money home, then vote for me. If you are a young man or women in Apaaso, in Dasaase, in New Town, and you want to travel, I Pious, if I become your MP, I will travel with you.

I am not like Apem – when you are given the job, you put your hands between your thighs, and fail to do the job you’ve been given to do and help people. Move aside and let someone else do the job too, you say, you won’t. Konongo kaya, I’m not like that. If you are a young person and you want to go to Germany, America, UK, France, wherever you want to go, if you help me, when I get the chance, I’ll also help you.”

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi

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