A member of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) sanctioning committee, Alhaji Murtala Tofiq is calling for sanctions for two of its members for making the medical record of Braimah Kamoko’s October 3 opponent, John Napari public.
Napari was billed to fight the local boxing maverick but it hit a snag when the experienced GBA medical practitioner, Samuel Armah Acquaye reportedly told a radio station that the boxer failed his medical test.
He was quoted to have said ‘during the examination, I found out that he (Napari) was unfit to fight so I ruled him out. He can’t fight for now unless he has cured himself.’
But it was Kotei Neequaye who muddied the waters by giving some details, saying, ‘what I’m hearing is that Napari has Hepatitis C but that cannot necessitate the postponement of a fight.’
Neequaye’s medical reason was that ‘it is Hepatitis B that is serious.’
He went on to further state that ‘the GBA is in charge of all boxers in the country and should have checked their medicals before sanctioning the fight.’
But according to Alhaji Tofiq, Dr Acquaye and Neequaye had it all wrong by talking about Napari’s medicals in the media, saying that, ‘they have been in this business for a while and are aware how matters of this nature are handled.
This he said was a grave offence which must not be allowed to go unpunished since a record that is expected to be kept secret and confidential has now been dumped in the public.
The Ambition Promotions manager pointed out that from the start of negotiations for the fight, Neequaye never met the Authority’s criteria and the GBA never sanctioned it.
“Neequaye failed to brief the Authority on the kind of arrangement reached with Kamoko’s promoters based in Australia who owns the boxer’s promotional rights, for that matter the committee did not sanction it. Securing a date does not mean a sanctioning date have been given?”
He said today’s meeting of the GBA would among other things decide on what punitive measures to take against the two and also address the problem of managers announcing promotions without sanctioning notices from the GBA.
Alhaji Tofiq said the GBA would not stop any promoter or manager from staging any fight but ‘what we need to ensure is that the right things are done to avoid the controversies that comes with it.
