Former WAFA player, Emmanuel Boateng has settled the fine for a 64-year-old charcoal producer who is on a 12-month jail term at the Winneba Local Prison for breaking into a house owned by former Black Stars defender, John Paintsil.
The IF Elfsborg midfielder paid a fine of GH₵1440 for the inmate, Isaac Odoom, who has been released after spending two months in jail.
Odoom, with steaming eyes and a broken voice, blessed the Ghanaian footballer's life for the wonderful gesture after being declared freeman.
"What I will tell Emmanuel Boateng is that God should protect him. Whatever heart desires, he should receive in multiple folds. God should protect him from evil and also God should protect his family. God bless him for doing this, as human being our thanks are very small, the bigger one comes from God," he said.
Odoom was arrested as an accomplice for unlawfully breaking into John Paintsil's abandoned house in the Central Region.
Speaking with Crime Check, he said he was misled by someone he struck acquaintances with when he visited Besease to undertake charcoal business.
“We got jailed for sleeping in someone’s house. The house we slept in belonged to the footballer, John Paintsil. I didn’t know it was his house but someone led me there. The person initially didn’t tell me the house belonged to Joseph Paintsil.
“I found out a day after we slept there. I’m from Ajumako but we went to Besease to produce charcoal. Normally we sleep at the site we work but because I was new to the village had to fall on someone. The person said we were going to sleep at a place so my assumption was that we were going to his house. When we got there, he asked that we use the windows side so I inquired from him and he explained that he was having issues with his mom and didn’t want her to see us.
“It was an abandoned house so there was nothing in it. The house was a subject of litigation so there was nothing in it. Two days after I had left Besease for my hometown I got informed that someone had been arrested for sleeping in John Paintsil’s house and the person mentioned my name as his accomplice,” he said.
According to Isaac Odoom of the three charges made against him, he pleaded guilty to two of them.
He was acquitted on the charge of theft but was convicted on charges of trespassing and unlawful entry.
“We were charged with unlawful entry and trespassing on someone’s property. We were also accused of stealing a mattress. I pleaded not guilty to the charge of theft but pleaded guilty to the other charges. I was fined GHC1440 but I couldn’t pay”, he said.
Emmanuel Boateng and Isaac Odoom