Kofi Owusu Aduonum
18 August 2008
The protracted legal tussle involving Ghanaian Lawyer and T.V. Sports Commentator, Sarfo Abebrese at the Circuit Court in Accra has ended.
At its sitting in Accra, the Court, which had previously issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the founder of both the Supporters Union of Ghana SUGHA) and the Coalition of Supporters Unions of Africa (COSUA), not only rescinded the bench warrant for his arrest, but also discharged him and dismissed all the six counts of fraud charges against him for want of prosecution.
This followed a withdrawal of the case by the Prosecution through the prosecuting officer, Mr. John Nyatuameh, who tendered a withdrawal letter from the Police. Mr. Nyatuameh told the court, presided over by Mr. Justice N.E.K. Osam that the decision to withdraw the case followed SUGHA's acceptance of responsibility for the monies involved and payment of the said monies to the affected complainants, who were all members of the union.
He said, having received all the payments from the Union on behalf of the complainants who had all manifested a desire not to press charges against Abebrese or any executive member of the union, the prosecution had no option than to withdraw the charges for want of prosecution, and as a means of promoting reconciliation between the union and the affected members.
The complainants, he said, had manifested that desire through a statement signed by their spokesman, Godfred Owusu, in the presence of the others, at the Police Headquarters in Accra.
Welcoming the Courts decision, the National Coordinator, Mr. Harry Awuah Baffour deplored the sabotage of SUGHA and COSUA as well as the well-meaning Abebrese, as typified by the conduct of the case. He wondered why the case had persisted even though SUGHA, under its vice-President, Dr. Ken Aryeetey, had issued an indemnity for Lawyer Abebrese and indicated that all payments made, had been made to the union and covered with official SUGHA receipts and not to Lawyer Abebrese in his personal capacity.
He expressed satisfaction that the Union had finally been able to make good its promise to pay those debts and said that all other forms of indebtedness that they had incurred over the past years, mainly through abortive trips orchestrated by some hidden hands in political authority would be settled in due course.
It would be recalled that SUGHA, under the leadership of Sarfo Abebrese inaugurated the Supporters Unions of Africa (COSUA), in Accra on September 7, 2006, with the aim of mobilizing total support of all African countries for the six teams that would qualify to represent Africa in the 2010 World Cup. According to Mr. Awuah Baffour, even before COSUA was launched, SUGHA members had been subjected to several forms of intimidation and physical attacks, including that of Port Said (Egypt 2006), which culminated in the vandalization of Ghana's national flag by their assailants with obvious approval of officialdom, as well as the orchestrated incarceration and deportation of a group of SUGHA members, including Abebrese himself, from Tunisia and Italy, in May 2006.
The case has been one case our detractors have always used to disgrace our founder and inhibit him from realizing the COSUA dream. For example, when Sarfo was invited by the African Union to South Africa to address the 'African Year of Football Conference', in 2007, it was used to obtain a bench warrant for his arrest on the same date that the A.U. had programmed for him to leave Accra.
°And how else can one explain the ridiculous publication on the front page of the Graphic of all papers that the eight complainants in this same case had been defrauded by Mr. Abebrese to the tune of US$14.8 million, that is over ¢150 BILLION !!...from eight people, meaning that each person paid more than ¢20 BILLION just for one trip!
Mr. Awuah said that as incredible as it was, the entire Ghanaian media carried this story and circulated it all over the internet to achieve the propagators aim of destroying Sarfo's image and credibility beyond repair.
He said it was unfortunate that Sarfo, who he said has been hailed and described in various foreign countries as a modern-day Kwame Nkrumah should be persecuted in this manner in his own home country, especially at a time when his vision for African Unity has received such resounding acceptance across Africa and beyond.
He showed the GNA a copy of an official A.U. Certification no. COM.SAD.18.129.08 and dated April 3, 2008, which lauds Sarfo's project as one that provides a platform for harnessing opportunities for building African Unity, adding that: "The African Union Commission supports in principle the efforts of COSUA... and recognizes this effort as a contribution to the operation
alization of the Declaration of the 8th African Union Assembly, adopted in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2007, on the International Year of African football."
The certification ends by soliciting assistance from all concerned to the group and its founding President, Advocate Sarfo Abebrese, in their endeavours to materialize COSUA's mission.
Mr. Awuah Baffour pleaded with Ghanaians not to sabotage this mission as Sarfo continues his crusade by personally travelling through out all the 53 countries of Africa at a time saboteurs in Ghana peddle rumours that he is in hiding. He said records of his African tour are available on the internet from every country he has visited and from all magazines, newspapers and TV networks everywhere.
Don't forget that Sarfo Abebrese was sworn in as a U.S. Attorney in 2002, at the New York Supreme Court and he has exhibited remarkable loyalty to Ghana and Africa by sacrificing a guaranteed life of comfort at the New York Bar to embark on this thankless crusade of carrying out the A.U mission.
Is that the mark of a criminal greedy for money?, he asked, adding that maybe it will take renounciation of his Ghanaian citizenship for us to realize what we had lost as options abound for him all over.
He concluded that already, the South African government had granted Mr. Abebrese an unusual 6-year residence in the Country and their Sports Ministry is assisting in the running of his COSUA 2010 Operations office in Johannesburg. On the issue of other allegations of fraud against the former SUGHA boss, Harry said they emanate partly from the ignorant public, and partly from mischief.
"If a teacher prepares his class for examinations, he is not charged with fraud in failing to secure a certificate for those who fail.
"If a lawyer loses his case in defending a murder suspect and the client ends up at the firing squad, the lawyer is not charged with fraud infailing to secure an acquittal for the client."
But if a U.S. certified immigration lawyer like Sarfo takes up an immigration case, either for a deportee, lottery visa winner or an appellant against unjustifiable refusal, he dares not lose! In fact as in the present case, in every single visa case, his clients have lost money to fraudsters for failing to secure them visa.
So allegations go on and on and on, fuelled gleefully by those who want to bring him down by all means. To stem this, we as SUGHA are offering to settle everybody who claims anything from our leader, not in admission of his guilt, but just so that he can forget about coming back to finish those numerous immigration cases he was handling and concentrate on the AFRICAN MISSION for us and the whole continent.
"We are sending a request to the Police to assist us in this exercise and we will announce a time-frame and format for these refunds very soon," he assured.
At the time of going to press, Sarfo could not be reached in his hotel in New York, where he is attending the Annual Conference of the American Bar Association, for his reaction to news of his acquittal and discharge.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
