#Number12 Exposé: Kwesi Nyantakyi Discharged by High Court as Prosecutors Fail to Present Anas
Five-year trial collapses after investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas declines to testify without his trademark mask
- Court ruled Anas must testify without a mask, leading to his absence in court
- Charges of fraud and corruption dismissed due to insufficient evidence
- Case marks the end of a high-profile scandal that rocked Ghana football
Kwesi Nyantakyi, the former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has been discharged by the Accra High Court after investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas failed to testify.
Presided over by Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, the court ruled on Thursday, February 13, 2025, that the state lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute Nyantakyi and Abdulai Alhassan, a former Northern Regional FA chairman.
The case had reached a stalemate after a Court of Appeal ruling on January 30 required Anas to testify without his trademark mask. Despite an earlier ruling allowing Anas to testify in-camera with his face revealed to Nyantakyi in chambers, the journalist declined to proceed.
Nyantakyi and Alhassan faced charges of fraud and corruption tied to their involvement in the infamous Number 12 documentary. The exposé, aired in June 2018, depicted Nyantakyi allegedly accepting a $65,000 bribe and implicated over 100 referees in bribery scandals.
The five-year trial, which initially shook Ghana’s football ecosystem, has now concluded without convictions, leaving questions about the fallout from the groundbreaking exposé.
