A high court in Ghana has discharged Kwesi Nyantakyi, the former president of the country’s football association (GFA), after a complex five-year legal battle.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and corruption after being filmed taking money from a reporter during a sting investigation in 2018.
Alongside his Ghana Football Association role, Nyantakyi served as a vice-president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and was also a member of the Fifa council.
He was given a life ban by football’s world governing body for breaking bribery and corruption rules, but that sanction was later reduced to 15 years on appeal.
Nyantakyi pleaded not guilty to the charges that arose from the investigation, which sought to expose corruption in African football and was reported by BBC Africa Eye.
The case against him collapsed after Ghanaian state prosecutors failed to present any of their five potential witnesses, including undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Anas had wanted to testify wearing a mask to protect his anonymity and because of security concerns.
Resignation after Number 12 documentary
Nyantakyi’s case stemmed from an investigative documentary titled ‘Number 12’.
Secretly recorded footage showed him receiving $65,000 (£51,500) cash from an undercover reporter pretending to be a businessman keen to invest in Ghanaian football.
He denied any wrongdoing, claiming the footage was doctored to incriminate him and that he had received a lesser amount in reimbursement of travel expenses.
Nyantakyi dismissed the investigation as “shoddy work with cut and paste” but later resigned from his positions at the GFA, Caf and Fifa before the latter banned him in October 2018.
He was the most prominent person among more than 100 football officials – most of them West African referees – who received cash during the Number 12 investigation.
Fifa rules forbid officials from receiving cash gifts.
Despite the documentary’s findings, the prosecution’s inability to secure testimony from their witnesses led to the decision of the high court in Accra to discharge Nyantakyi.
Delays after mask wrangle and murder
One major issue in the case was how Anas would appear in court as a witness.
In May 2023 an Accra High Court ruled that the undercover reporter could take to the stand wearing his trademark bead mask.
However, a Court of Appeal subsequently overturned that decision, insisting Anas should testify without the mask.
On Thursday, state prosecutors submitted a request for a one-month adjournment to work out their next move, but that was denied.
Nyantakyi’s prosecution was delayed by the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an investigative journalist involved in the Number 12 documentary, by unidentified gunmen in January 2019.
Hussein-Suale would have been the star witness in the case.
Nyantakyi was also investigated as part of this case for fraudulently using the name of former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
For now Nyantakyi has been discharged, but the state can revisit the case in future if necessary.
