A former president of the Ghana Boxing Authority, Moses Foh Amoaning, has dropped hints of plans by the government to further honour the retired world boxing champion David Kotei, better known as “D K Poison”.
Speaking to Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (7 October), the consultant to the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) said the plans include building a 1,000-seater coliseum near Teshie in the Greater Accra Region.
“There is a bigger plan to honour him. There is an AstroTurf [pitch] being built at Ledzokuku/Krowor – and, by the way, that is the constituency where D K Poison hails from, Teshie area,” Foh Amoaning said.
Honours in his lifetime
“So we are in discussion with the MP [for Ledzokuku], Honourable Okoe Boye. I have spoken to him, because they are building a huge facility being sponsored by McDan [Shipping Ltd] costing about GHC5 million, and we want to include a 1,000-seater D K Poison Boxing Coliseum and multipurpose sports hall to honour him.”
The sports consultant said the government has a keen interest in honouring the boxing legend while he is alive.
“We don’t wanna wait for him to go up before we honour him in this matter.
“The case that we put has been accepted in principle by both MacDan and Honourable Okoe Boye, and [by] the contractors who are in charge of the project, so there is bigger news than what the president has announced.”
D K Poison has been in the headlines since Tuesday after news broke that President Akufo-Addo had ordered that US$45,000 Ghana owes the retired world champion be paid to him.
In a letter dated 28 September 2020, which was issued and signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, President Akufo-Addo directed the Ministry of Finance to pay the said amount to Poison on “compassionate grounds”.
40-year quest
After 40 years pursuing his money, the champion will receive the $45,000 he loaned to Ghana out of his purse for his title defence against Shigefumi Fukuyama in 1976.
The official decision comes after the boxer and his lawyers sent a petition to the Office of the President in September 2019, requesting that the government pay him back the money he lent the then military government in 1976.
The payment of the debt will fulfil a promise President Akufo-Addo made to the boxing legend in October last year after a meeting between the two men.
D K Poison shot to fame when he became Ghana’s first ever world boxing champion on 20 September 1975, defeating the then WBC featherweight title holder, Reubén Olivares, in a 15-round bout in Inglewood, California.
Fred Dzakpata
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UPDATE: A correction was made to this article on 10 October to record the year in which D K Poison lent money to the military regime as 1976.
