Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif clarifies ‘fake’ Paralympic team Norway visa scandal

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has clarified that his ministry was not involved in securing visas for a group that falsely claimed to be Ghana’s Paralympics team for a marathon event in Oslo, Norway.

He explained that typically, associations inform the Sports Ministry through the National Sports Authority about upcoming events, but this procedure was not followed in the case of the ‘Paralympic team.’ He stressed that his ministry was not informed about the marathon event and that the team did not travel on behalf of Ghana.

“In this Norway case, there was no request made to either the National Sports Authority or the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We were not aware of any event, and the team that went did not represent Ghana as reported,” he stated during a press briefing on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

The minister outlined the usual visa application process for athletes, noting that the Sports Ministry collaborates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to secure visas and does not directly send letters to embassies. “Normally, we don’t issue letters to embassies; we write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to handle it on our behalf. For the record, this fabricated Paralympic team did not represent our country.”

The scandal was exposed after a statement from National Security revealed that an 11-member Paralympic team had absconded after arriving in Norway.

The statement mentioned that one member was arrested by Norwegian authorities while traveling to Sweden, and another died after collapsing, leaving nine members unaccounted for