Greater Accra Basketball League: Probe commences into blackout at Prisons v Braves game
Organizers of the Greater Accra Basketball League have commenced investigations into the blackout that occurred in the dying embers of a nighttime clash between the Braves of Customs and Reformers of Prisons.
Players and officials of the Braves alleged that the blackout during matchday two of the Division One play-off was deliberate sabotage intended to deny them a win. They were leading by six points before the game ended abruptly after the Cantonment Prisons basketball court experienced a strange power outage.
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With a 48-42 lead and just a handful of minutes left to play, the Braves were confident of taking their victory over the line but the strange light out meant that the game had to be put on ice with the organizers still pondering over the next step forward.
The Braves' suspicions were further heightened by the fact that whiles the lights at the Prisons' court were off, the surrounding area had no such power troubles with the lights on.
In an interview, Alex Kukula, the Director of the Greater Accra Basketball League and Vice President of the Ghana Basketball Association said efforts by him and other officials to get answers over the sudden power outage proved futile as facility managers who either not available or not cooperative.
According to him, the organizers were shocked by the sudden power as the facility is directly connected to the national power grid which immunes it from power outages even when the specific area experiences a power cut.
Mr Kukula assured that the organizers will fully investigate the issue and take the necessary measures that will protect the integrity of the competition and basketball in the country.
"We've no concrete proof to ascertain if it was a deliberate act. To put off a whole headquarters of the Ghana Prisons' Service just because of a basketball match is a serious thing if that's what happened. I would like all of us to keep a cool head and find a way of solving this thing now," he said.
"It's their premises we've been using for the league the past few years. We will go back to the powers that gave us permission to look into it and let us know officially what happened on that day so that there will be clarity and the integrity of the law will be kept."
