Ghanaian powerhouse Asante Kotoko have been rocked with a bribery scandal, amid claims the club tried to bribe a referee during their Special Competition match against Ashantigold at the weekend.
Retired referee Robert Tawiah Mensah alleges that one Kofi Oduro, who is reported to be very close to Kotoko Chairman Dr Kwame Kyei is demanding a reimbursement of a supposed GH 8,000 he paid to the match officials.
He says Kofi Oduro nicknamed “Shishilla” has been bullying him with calls to get a repayment of the cash after the Porcupine Warriors suffered a 1-0 loss in Obuasi through Mark Agyekum.
The bribery allegation has since created serious controversy in Kumasi as it put the credibility of the club on the line.
“It’s true that before the Ashanti Gold SC match with Kotoko, monies were given to the match officials by a Kotoko official. I was Techiman when the operations manager of Kotoko called ‘Shishila’ said he wants to meet the Referees for the match who were coming from Tamale” Referee Mensah told Nimde3 FM.
“He [Shishila] said he has money for the officials led by Referee Ali Alhassan, so a meeting should be held in Techiman since the referees said they can’t meet us in Tamale after I called them”
“Shishila came to Techiman with a Nissan Visen numbered AS 2988 – 18 to talked with with that we can leave for Tamale to meet the referees for their match against Ashanti Gold”
“We met the Referees at the Tamale STC yard and gave them an undisclosed amount of money which was in a black polythene bag”
“He gave me 500 cedis for helping him to meet the referees because he said his team needed the points badly”
“After the match, he [Shishila] called me that he wants to retrieve his money from the referees because they failed to deliver as they promised”
“He called the referees also told them he needs his 8000 cedis because they couldn’t help his side to beat Ashanti Gold” he added