CAF’s President, Ahmad Ahmad has discredited reports of settling scores with his predecessor, Issa Yahatou following the withdrawal of the 2019 Afcon hosting right from Cameroon.
The executive committee of Caf took this surprising decision on Cameroon due to growing concerns of internal insecurity in the central African country.
Reacting to such claims in an interview on Afrique Media’s Pan African TV, Ahmad who could not hide his frustration at such claims said, never for ones did he criticize the erstwhile regime of Caf despite several media attempts at soliciting for his views on Hayatou’s leadership style.
Hence, the non-existence of any rift or bad blood between his good self and Hayatou.
“Even when journalists tried repeatedly to urge me to comment on his (Issa Hayatou) reign, I always avoided it and told them it was their role not mine. It is not possible that withdrawing Afcon 2019 from Cameroon implies I’m settling scores with my predecessor, a Cameroonian,” Ahmad remarked.
The CAF capo, however explained that, CAf was minded by the Cabinda incident of 2010, where the Togolese national team bus was attacked by gunmen leading to the death of three with several left injured. According to him, Caf paid dearly for that incident and thus, cannot take such risk again.
Cameroon is currently battling the mutiny of Boko Haram in the Northern regions and a separatist movement in the Anglophone regions of the country.
