Four family members of the coach of the ‘Paralympic team’ of Ghana have absconded after the country sent them to retrieve the body of the deceased.
This development was made public by the President of the National Paralympic Committee of Ghana (NPC-Ghana), Samson Deen.
Recall that the NPC and Ghana’s Sports Ministry were hit with a visa scandal on Saturday, July 21, 2024, after it emerged that 11 people fled after arriving in Oslo for the Fjordkraft Bergen City Marathon. The para-athletes, who have been identified as fake, failed to take part in the competition and ran away to other Schengen nations.
It was gathered that the coach of the team, George Gyamfi Gyasi, died in Norway while one of the suspects was arrested.
Giving an update on the incident, Deen disclosed that four relatives of the coach who were sent to bring back his corpse have also absconded.
His words, “If you look at the first application, it was six or seven people they applied for initially. They were denied visas, they got the letters they wanted subsequently forged, but upon arrival, they absconded, and one died,” he told Asaase Radio, as quoted by Pulse Ghana.
“They subsequently wrote to the Norwegian embassy again and requested to send the families of the one who died. The people went, they couldn’t bring the corpse. The four also absconded, these guys are known. They’ve been identified.”
According to the president of the NPC, the suspects forged documents to secure their visas for the competition.
“They forged my signature on the letter and applied for visas for some people who have no affiliation with the Ghana Paralympic Team,” he said.
He added, “For this matter, the two remaining individuals have been suspended from anything that has to do with Paralympic Sports in the country.”
