Armed robbers attack Goldfields coach
Professional golfers unhappy with organisation of sport
Sunyani (Greater Accra) 21 May 2002 - Bofoakwa Tano on Monday beat Dawu Youngsters 2 -1 in their seventh-week premier soccer league match played at the Coronation Park, Sunyani. The match was rained out on Sunday. Half time scores were Bofoakwa 2 Dawu -0.
Bofoakwa kicked off strongly and got an early goal through Charles Benson, whose scissor-kick in the Dawu's vital area beat goalkeeper Anthony Amoaful in the sixth minute. Bofoakwa nearly increased the tally three minutes later but Kwaku Duah, who had only the goalkeeper to beat, shot over the bar.
Let off the hook, Dawu took control of the game and dictated the pace and in the process Paul Ofori playing at centre-forward position but wearing the number 10 jersey, squandered three goal-scoring chances that came his way. In the 35th minute Kofi Asiedu of Bofoakwa attracted the referee's yellow card for rough play.
Bofoakwa came back into the game and in the 42nd minute Captain Abeiku Aikins' left-footer was saved by Dawu's goalkeeper. Keeper Amoaful parried Kofi Asiedu's close-range shot over the bar a two minutes later. However, Benson who played a yeoman's game, scored his second personal goal with a beautiful header from a corners-kick to end the first half 2 - 0 for Bofoakwa.
In the 55th minute Issah Ahmed of Dawu had the yellow card flashed at his face for dissenting. As the game progressed Dawu found their rhythm and succeeded in pulling a goal back in 88th minute to end the match 2 - 1.
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Obuasi (Ashanti Region) 21 May 2002 - The Head Coach of Goldfields Sporting Club, Mr Francis Oti-Akenten, was in the early hours of Monday attacked by armed robbers at his residence at Obuasi near the Coconut Groove Hotel and succeeded in making away with personal items including 2,500 dollars, 45 pounds sterling, 20,000 CFA and two million cedis. The armed men numbering about 10 broke into the house through the balcony after unsuccessful attempts to break the main door.
Briefing the press, the Operations Manager of Goldfields Sporting club, Mr E.K. Oteng Aboagye said when the robbers saw that the coach was using a telephone to call for help they fired at him through the window. He said the robbers on entering into the main rooms forced the coach to show them where he keeps his money, which he did and they collected everything.
Not satisfied, the armed robbers woke up the coach's daughter and at gunpoint asked her to take them to the place where her father has been keeping his money and the girl took them to the same safe which they had already looted. The Operations Manager said the robbers also forcibly removed the couples wedding rings from their fingers and again took away the coach's three mobile phones.
They then smashed the side glasses of the official Pajero vehicle being used by the coach and removed the tape. Mr Oteng Aboagye said after completing the operation, the robbers severely assaulted the coach and led him, the wife and the daughter to one of the toilets and locked them up while their maid was also locked in the other toilet.
He said two boys in the house succeeded in crawling out of their room and hid under a parked car at the garage. The Operations Manager said when the couple's six-year-old child who was not disturbed by the armed robbers woke up, the coach asked the child to ring my number and on receiving the message, "I went to the scene with one of the Len Clay Stadium security men, to release the coach and his family."
When the Obuasi Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent K.A. Boateng was contacted, he confirmed the incident but said by the time a police patrol team got wind of what was happening and rushed to the scene the robbers has escaped. He appealed to the public to assist the Police to clamp down on armed robbery activities in the Obuasi and its surrounding area. Chief superintendent Boateng said the police have intensified their search for the robbers.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 21 May 2002 - The Greater Accra Volleyball gala, to usher in the league season will be played at the Lebanon House in Accra on Friday 24 May and Saturday 25 May.
Mr L.S. Adjei, Vice Chairman of the Greater Accra Volleyball Association who announced this in Accra on Monday, said teams expected to participate in the gala include the Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Navy, Volta Aluminium Company Limited, Ghana Army, Stoke City, Peace Volleyball Club Great Lante Mills and Ghana Police Service.
He regretted that volleyball has not enjoyed any support from the sports authorities for a long time adding that "only a few individuals and companies have been contributing to help the association to organise its programmes." Mr Adjei called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to give the sport the necessary push so that volleyball can make a stride both on the local and international scene.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 21 May 2002 - Two professional golfers have expressed dissatisfaction with the organisation of the sport in the country claiming that professional golfers were not given the due recognition. Mr E. Brave-Mensah and Baba Akologo, who spoke to GNA Sports at the end of the 47th edition of the Asantehene Gold Cup Competition in Kumasi on Sunday, said instead of placing emphasis on the professional aspects of the game, it was rather the amateurs who got all the attention.
They contended that this situation accounted for the meagre prize money paid to professionals at competitions and said this state of affairs was a great disincentive to the growth of the sport in the country. Mr Brave-Mensah said for instance that in Togo, prize money was quite attractive while professional golfers were highly regarded.
He said in spite of several appeals to the Ghana Golf Association (GGA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to have the sport supported and properly organised to give the professionals their due recognition, nothing had been done despite promises and assurances.
"If we the professionals, who impart knowledge to the youth that are taking up the sport are treated this way, then there is no future for these young ones since they will get the same treatment." Mr Brave-Mensah said if the GGA wanted to organise golf in the country, then it must sit up and organise it properly instead of what was happening now, adding that if on the other hand it could not organise the sport properly then it must give way to those who could do it properly.
Baba Akologo said the game was not growing in the country due to its poor organisation and that he had been a professional golfer for the past 11 years but had not seen any marked changes towards raising the sport from its present organisation to professional status, adding that Ghana was the poorest in terms of organisation of sports in the West African sub-region.
He mentioned prize money as the lowest and the lack of incentives in terms of souvenirs at competitions and said the professionals were completely left out by sponsors. Baba Akologo said for instance that he had colleagues in Nigeria, who were anxious to compete in the Asantehene Gold Cup but the four million cedis prize money was so meagre that he had to ask them to stop.
He mentioned sponsorship as one area that was also militating against the growth of the sport and said Nigeria for instance was paying about one million dollars to get Tiger Woods to visit that country and that it was a real booster to the sport in Nigeria. Baba Akologo said there were many professional players in the country who could make the game tick and asked the GGA to rather encourage the professionals, who could place the country on the world golf map instead of paying all the attention to amateur golfing.
He said a lot of young professional golfers had left the country to engage in other fields of endeavour due to the poor pickings from the sport in the country. Baba Akologo described the Kumasi golf course as the best in the country, which could be used to attract a lot of professional golfers if the game were properly organised.
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