The President of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA), Abraham Kotei Neequaye, in an exclusive interview with our Chief Managing Editor has responded to a recent tweet by Streetwise Management boss, Mr. Michael Amoo-Bediako Snr on how members of the Boxing Promoters Association of Ghana were addressed in a recent interview by the GBA President.
In the tweet, Mr. Amoo-Bediako said,
“In a TV interview with the President of the GBA, Mr Kotei Neequaye referred to members of the newly formed Boxing Promoters Association as “errand boys,” this is disrespectful and disgusting and does not befit anyone holding the office of a President.”
The tweet by the Streetwise boss who doubles as the manager of former IBF world champion Richard Commey, caught Lou Dibella’s (Promoter of both Richard Commey and Emmanuel Tagoe) attention hence he commented,
“African boxing officials should not hold back African boxing. Ghanaian boxing officials should not hold back Ghanaian boxing. There is much room for growth for boxing in Ghana. Promoters communicating and working together can only be positive.”
In our quest to have a balanced story, Boxing Ghana led by Sammy Ofosuhene found it prudent to ascertain from the GBA President who allegedly made the comment and this was his response concerning the the use of “errand boys” as indicated by Mr Amoo-Bediako
“My brother, you see, the guy I referred to him as an “errand boy”- “Jingles” is an errand boy of Cabic Promotions, errand boy for the Director of Cabic Promotions who is, Ivan Cudjoe.” Explained the GBA President.
He also talked about the formation of the new Boxing Promoters Association of Ghana, explaining why it’s existence has seemingly no authority and backing of the GBA.
“How can somebody who followed some promoter (Jingles), who is not licensed by the GBA you go for a Congress and elected him as your organizer. The GBA don’t recognize him to be the organizer of the promotional association.”
“Don’t forget that I’ve been part of the promotional association over the years. We started promotions not today. The association of promoters did not start just last month, Alhaji Toffick was the former President, and to go to Congress to change Alhaji Toffick, you have to inform the GBA that the Promoters Association we have the intention of going to Congress and elect new leaders.”
The GBA President further questioned the eligibility and authority of the members of the Promoters Association with respect to the number of promoters that formed the Association and also are in good standing with the governing body.
“And out of sixteen (16) Promoters, how can three (3) Promoters go to Congress?
And your reason is, its only the three promoters that are active promoters in Ghana. Who told you?.” He rhetorically quizzed.
“Ashongman Boxing League is promoting fights, Sea View just did a fight, Ambitions also did it’s own, so is it only about Cabic and Box Office and ACE [Power]? So they have to go to Congress to elect people with good standing. And as at the time that they were going to the Congress, none of them had renewed their licenses.
“Even as I speak to you now, none of them have renewed their license, so how do you go to Congress? You see, the problem is, forcing the right things to be done is sometimes a little difficult and I understand as a leader. When you want to do something right, a lot of people will have some issues with you, but it’s part of leadership.” He lamented.
The former head of BabyJet promotions also hinted the possibility of increasing the Promotional fee in order to attract serious promoters
“A lot of promoters, somebody like Dons Promotions [Nii Yarboi Annan] even said he wish that the promotional fee will go to 10,000 (Ghana cedis) so that we can have people of standard. Not everybody wakes up because he got some thousand cedis, he says he’s a promoter.” He expressed.
A lot was said during the dialogue between Boxing Ghana’s editor and the GBA President Abraham Kotei Neequaye, Boxing Ghana will publish the rest in series so watch the space.