In October 1999, Asante Kotoko Sporting Club left Accra for a training tour in Hamburg, Germany without their head coach Aboubakar Ouattara who was arrested on Sunday, 26th October by Ghana Police before the trip.
The Ivorian trainer who is not new to controversies has just been announced as the new coach of Accra Hearts of Oak, but thisnia not his first time in Ghana as he has had two stints with Kotoko and also coached King Faisal before . He was signed by Kotoko at the end of the first round matches during the 1998/1999 season after earlier coaching the club under Dr Kankam around 1995-1997. But before Kotoko travelled to Germany in 99, ,he was charged for defrauding two people under the pretext of sending them to Germany on Kotoko’s trip,after the then Kotoko Management under Herbert Mensah helped the police to arrest him.
Ouattara who pleaded not guilty to the charge at the Kumasi Tribunal presided over by Mr. Joseph Abanga, remanded him in custody for a week, according Mordenghana.com.
According to the Police, Ouattara promised one Akwasi Fosu, a ball boy of the club and Emmanuel Agyeman, former student of Adisadel College who was an ardent supporter of the club, to include them in Kotoko’s squad for Hamburg at a fee of 2,000 dollars each.
Ouattara is said to have promised to finish with the documentation for the trip within two weeks of taking the money but could not honour his promise and resorted to playing hide and seek with the boys after receiving it.
With the departure date of Kotoko drawing near and sensing that they were not part of the squad, the victims reported the matter to the Kumasi Police Buffalo Unit who arrested the coach.
Mr. A.A Amankwah, counsel for the accused admitted that his client had collected the amount but said under an undertaking made between Ouattara and the complainants, the accused was to return from the training tour of Kotoko before addressing the issue of the complainants trip abroad.
Mr. Amankwah tendered the undertaking as evidence in court but the Tribunal chairman rejected it and remanded the accused in custody stating multiple fraud cases against him.
The new Hearts of Oak coach was put on ice and the issue angered Kotoko and in the wake of the embarrassment ,Kotoko even had to dispense with his services. But that could not stop commentary on the incident while a few people who were alleged to have been duped by the coach continued to search for the coach.
Outtara is famed for producing the likes of Prince Amoako and other players during his time at Kotoko .
