[ 2021-03-19 ]

Ambassador Lutterodt charges GOC prez to tackle Martha Bissah issue
The President of the Ghana Olympic Committee(GOC),
Ben Nunoo Mensah says he will take a careful
consideration into the Martha Bissah issue and
liaise with the Youth and Sports Ministry to
revoke her ban.
He pledged to look into all issues bedeviling
individual athletes in the various national
federations and settle teething problems of
athletes.



“My focus now is the Tokyo preparations and
athletes welfare is also my priority, the Martha
Bissah issue will be carefully looked into and we
will revoke her ban when I meet the minister,”
he stated.

The Martha Bissah issue has been pending at the
ministry. It could be recalled that former Sports
Minister, Isaac Kwame Asiamah directed the GAA to
deal with it and ensure justice for Martha Bissah
but nothing happened after his directive.

His comments follows the admonishing of Mr George
Haldane Lutterodt, the former president of the GAA
who is urging the new Nunoo-Mensah administration
to rein in the excesses of the current GAA
leadership and ensure Martha Bissah returns to the
athletics body to compete for the country.

“ His first term, he faced some stumbling blocks
as elements against Martha were still with the
GOC, he now has a clean sweep and a united front
so he should endeavour to make Martha compete for
Ghana,” he told the Daily Graphic in an
exclusive interview in Accra yesterday.



Just after the 2015 All Africa Games, Bissah was
placed on ice by the GAA for insubordination and
indiscipline, a claim she has rejected and
labelled it as victimisation for bringing the ills
within the GAA to the fore.

Martha, 23, is currently studying at the Norfolk
State University in the United States and has been
one of their ardent athletes who won laurels for
the country. Three years ago, she won the 2018
Norfolk State University (NSU) Female Athlete of
Year .

“ Just as happened in South Africa when
Athletics South Africa decided to ban Caster
Semenya for higher testosterone, the South Africa
Olympic Committee immediately halted the ban to
ensure sanity and orderliness,” Mr Lutterodt,
who is also an economist and peace ambassador,
noted.

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Last year, Martha Bissah told the Daily Graphic
she was unwilling to yield to the demands of the
GAA who are asking her to render an unconditional
apology for comments she made agains the GAA that
occasioned her ban which is in the sixth year.

However, the nation’s only Olympic gold
medallist at the junior level says she can’t and
won’t apologise for the truth which she spoke on
that day.
That said, Mr Lutterodt believes it is about time
Nunoo Mensah called the GAA to order and challenge
their authority over the truncation of the
athlete’s future.



“ Martha is a national and a GOC asset, she is
an Olympian and the GAA acts as an agent of the
GOC, her ban is a blot and a black hole for the
reputation of Ghana and the GOC so far as
athletics is concerned,” he told the Daily
Graphic.

Meanwhile, Mr Lutterodt has questioned the
credibility and integrity of the current
leadership of the GAA. According to him, all three
members of the GAA namely Christopher Amankrah,
Samuel Ayer and Bawa Fuseini who were put forward
to contest the GOC elections lost miserably.

“ This clearly suggests that this can’t be a
credible entity and the members of the GAA have
lost confidence in their leadership. I think the
whole executive members must resign in the face of
this,” he noted.

He congratulated Ben Nunoo Mensah and charged him
to speed up the preparations for the upcoming
Olympics. “ We are behind time and we must
faster the pace of our preparations , “ he noted

Source - GraphicSports

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