GOC Congress faces boycott
A planned Congress by the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) on Saturday could face a boycott following the displeasure of members over the timetable for elections and agenda for the event.
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Among the items on the agenda for Saturday’s Congress is a review of the GOC’s audited accounts for 2015, as well as the annual report. However, aggrieved members of some constituent bodies are against the agenda, insisting that the event be put off and held immediately after the Rio Olympic Games when elections of a new board are also expected to be held.
Some federation heads who spoke to the Graphic Sports said they had been informed by GOC leadership that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had agreed to its proposal to have an electoral congress next year, instead of a resolution adopted at the GOC’s last congress on December 18, last year, at which the tenure of the GOC president, Prof. Francis Dodoo, and his executive board, which expired last October, was extended for a year to fall within an Olympic cycle.
However, it is the alleged endorsement by the IOC of a proposal to hold elective congress next year that has enraged the aggrieved members of congress who have demanded proof of correspondence between the GOC and IOC to that effect.
"We don't see the rush in holding Congress when a simple general meeting can deal with the agenda on the table. Per the norm, Congress is held immediately after Olympic Games and it is, among other things, for elections, so why the rush now?" queried Ben Nunoo Mensah, president of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation.
At the time of going to press, there was talk of a threat of an injunction being placed on the Congress by an unnamed ferderation head.
While some heads of federations maintained that Saturday’s Congress was unnecessary, they were unwilling to be quoted.
However, Richard Akpokavie, the General Secretary of the GOC, told the Graphic Sports yesterday that the Congress would come off at the Theodosia Okoh National Hockey Stadium as planned.
He maintained that neither he nor the leadership of GOC had any knowledge about members being displeased with the Congress or a planned boycott let alone an injunction to stop Saturday’s event from taking place.