Brazil 2014 coconut incident never happened – Afriyie Ankrah

Former Sports Minister under the erstwhile John Mahama-led government, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has said reports that he bought coconut for a ridiculous amount of money during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil never happened and was just a figment of the imagination of a blogger that was picked by the mainstream media.

Shortly after the 2014 Brazil World Cup fiasco where the Black Stars exited the tournament in the first round amidst brouhaha over winning bonuses and appearance fee, Mr Ankrah was accused of profligate expenditure during his time in the South American country as the head of the government delegation for the tournament.

He was accused of living an extravagant lifestyle in Brazil including purchasing a coconut for $100.

But speaking on the matter after a number of callers on CTV’s Anopa Dwabirem kept recounting the incident on Monday, 14 June 2021, Mr Ankrah who said he wanted to clear the air once and for all on the subject noted that the coconut event never happened.

The Director of Elections of the NDC said: “In the first place, such an incidence never happened, it didn’t even occur for us to exaggerate. When you’re in government there will be lots of accusations against you, when these accusations are levelled against you, what government does is to investigate.

“As a minister of state, when we arrived from Brazil, the government set up a commission not just a committee with a justice of the appeal’s court as its chair which was telecast live on TV.

“There was never one issue of us buying coconut. That issues didn’t even come up. It was a blogger that wrote that fake story and other media picked it, so I’m putting it on record that there was absolutely nothing like that.

“At the end of the sitting the commission in its report said nothing about coconuts because it was not an issue so it didn’t even come up.”

He noted that as a minister of state he is grateful he was investigated and came out clean.

“There was a forensic audit by an independent entity but there was absolutely nothing against me,” he noted.

Mr Ankrah further stated that he has over the years challenged the Akufo-Addo-led government to revisit the report and prosecute him if they find anything incriminating “because there’s nothing incriminating me and up to now they haven’t found anything.”