Angry Ayariga Slams Kwame Sefa-Kayi Over Black Stars Budget

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga has debunk claims that the government of Ghana and the Ministry of Youth and Sports paid for fans to be airlifted to Equatorial Guinea to support the Black Stars at the just ended AFCON tournament.

Information making rounds indicates that, Government of Ghana spent over $6m to airlift about 250 fans to Equatorial Guinea to support the Black Stars but according to the minister, he is not aware of who sponsored them and how much was involved.

Speaking in an interview with Kwame Sefa-Kayi, on Peace FM morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the minister got irritated with questions as to how much budget was prepared for the tournament.

He said slummed the host saying, “the minister of youth and sports did not spend money on transporting supporters to Equatorial Guinea. Not one Pesewa of the ministry was approved for anybody to go and watch the football. We didn’t get ourselves involved in that and so how they got their funds and whoever was contracted; we didn’t have anything to do with that”.

"I believe GNPC and some other entities were involved" he indicated and urged the media to go and look for the actual company that sponsored the supporters to Equatorial Guinea since that is not part of his work, adding: “I feel sad that the conversation has been reduced to this level; I thought the conversation will be about the performance of the Black Stars. I thought that will be the concentration; what lesson did we learn, the sacrifices they (players) made and so on…I thought that with this useful airtime that you have, that will be the concentration…”

Even though, Kwame felt insulted with this statement by the minister, he comported himself and said “I do this for my country and I will tolerate any insult that come my way….this is my job and this is what I do”.