Immediate past Youth and Sports minister Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah returned home from Brazil on Thursday night full of remorse.
The Minister, who was stripped off his post while on duty in Brazil, still stood by his word of rendering account on every penny spent at the World Cup.
He expressed a sincere apology for the country’s disappointing World Cup campaign, and stated that he was as let down as any Ghanaian football fan.
The Minister, who appeared sober at the VVIP Lounge of the Kotoka
International Airport, described the past few weeks as torrid and promised to come out at the right time.
Currently serving as a Minister at the Presidency, he indicated that most of the stories that trickled down from Brazil during Ghana’s stay were fabrications.
“The past few weeks have been very challenging for me. We went to Brazil with the expectation that we will improve on our past performance, unfortunately that didn’t happen, and therefore Ghanaians are justifiably disappointed and angry. I am more disappointed than anybody else.
“As the leader of delegation I would like to apologise to Ghanaians for what happened and also for the behaviour of the team both on and off the pitch. Many things happened of which I will give proper account at the right time, needless to say I feel the pain and disappointment of Ghanaians. I just came back, I have to report to the President and the Chief of Staff before I speak to Ghanaians.
“I would use this opportunity to also apologise to the President because I promised him we were going to make history, make the nation proud, but it didn’t turn out to be so, but the lessons we learnt will help us consolidate.
“As I kept saying, I will account for every Cedi we spent to corporate Ghana.
There were a lot of fabrications, but I will speak at the appropriate time and the truth will stand,” the former Youth and Sports chief said.
He expressed profuse thanks to President Mahama for giving him the opportunity to serve Ghana, saying, “He has the prerogative to appoint and disappoint (sic). It was a challenging Ministry, and I would like to thank all those at the Ministry and wish my brother Mahama Ayariga (incoming Sports Minister) well.
“I thank corporate Ghana too for their support,” he concluded.
