Veteran Journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says his research shows that legendary boxer, David Kotei, popularly known as D.K Poison’s 45,000 USD which he loaned to the State of Ghana is not recorded in a Commission of Enquiry Document that probed loans contracted by then military leader, Col. I.K Acheampong.
His comment comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo cleared an amount of 45,000 USD to be paid to the boxer, after 45 years.
A letter from the Presidency asked the Ministry of Finance to take the necessary action to give effect to this directive.
“I write to convey the approval of the President of the Republic for an amount of forty-five Thousand United States Dollars (US$ 45,000) to be paid to Mr. David Kotei (a.k.a DK Poison) on compassionate grounds.”
The order from the Presidency follows a petition on behalf of D.K Poison by his lawyers sent to the Presidency in September 2019 that requested the payment of 45,000 USD which he loaned to the state of Ghana over four decades ago.
D.K Poison was asked by the then Military government led by Colonel Kutu Acheampong to loan his fight purse to the state to enable it to purchase mackerel during an economic crisis period.
This was after he won his second title defense against Shigefumi Fukuyama in Japan in 1976.
According to the boxing legend, he was only handed 34,000 USD out of his total fight purse of 75,000 USD.
But commenting on the issue on Peace FM monitored by Kasapafmonline.com, the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper questioned the veracity of the loan advanced to the state.
“I have a document on a Commission of Enquiry set up to probe loans secured by the Acheampong Regime. A whole list…hundreds of them, some described as crooked, fraudulent, and some genuine. Nowhere is this $45,000 mentioned…nowhere. So was it some private job somebody was doing using the name of the State? We sunk that low? I know there were problems but what was the State going to do with $45,000, I hear it was used in buying mackerel.. how. That’s why I say if I’m not careful I’ll sound as though I’m insensitive to D.K and his family who by now are in dire need of money.
“The State of Ghana contracted a $45,000 loan from a boxer to do what? and how? What happened to Nkrumah’s Ghana and then some 44 years down the line the Republic of Ghana has compassion and dole out such money. Ah, who contracted that loan? …Somebody somewhere did his private job. Would it not be so ridiculous for the State of Ghana even under the bankrupt dictatorship of Acheampong to go so low and take a loan from one individual Ghanaian who’s just a boxer, not a businessman, not a multi-millionaire, come on!” a puzzled Kweku Baako stated.
