Sam George
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram in the Greater Accra Region Samuel Nartey George, has rubbished reports that he betrayed his former boss and predecessor, Enoch Teye Mensah, affectionately calledd E.T Mensah.
According to Sam George, he had been loyal to the long-serving MP for Ningo-Prampram prior to the race of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries on November 22, 2015.
Results declared by the Electoral Commission had Mr George polling 4,910 votes representing 63.4 per cent of valid votes cast to end the parliamentary career of Mr Mensah who had been in Parliament since 1997. Mr Mensah polled 2,831 votes representing 36.5 per cent of valid votes cast.
After the NDC primaries, Mr. Mensah accused Sam George of maligning and denigrating him on radio stations during the campaign.
However, reacting to this on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz 103.9 FM, when Sam George was asked by the host of the programme that some people think he had not been loyal to E.T Mensah, especially the way he was ousted. Sam George said people are unaware about what transpired behind the scene with respect to agreement he had with the former lawmaker.
He explained that the E.T Mensah publicly introduced him as the next MP for Ningo-Prampram and taught him the ropes of becoming a leader and MP.
According to him, E.T made him and several other people aware that he was not going to contest the next elections and prepared him to take over from him.
Shockingly, E.T Mensah rescinded his decision to contest again ahead of the NDC internal elections in 2015 without informing him albeit he visited him in his office to officially declare his intention to represent the people of the area in Parliament.
“I’ve told quite a number of time and I don’t think I want to talk about it again but you see loyalty cuts in both ways and loyalty comes with integrity.
“I told you before this interview that I want to be that politician whose word is bond. When I give you my word I know it is final, it sealed. When I sit with you and agreed on something don’t try to play a fast one on me because I hold you to your word.
“Hon. E.T Mensah with the greatest of respect knows what the agreement was and if you talk to people who are branch executives in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency who were in the NDC in 2013, they’ll tell you.
“In 2012 when he ran, I was literally his campaign manager running in the field for him. And after we won he told them this is your next MP. The day President Mahama came to Old Ningo to outdoor him, go and look for the pictures. When President Mahama held Hon. E.T Mensah hand and raised it, Hon. E.T Mensah held my hand and raised it. It is at the time Ningo was boiling. They’ve created a new district and Ningoes want the District Capital Should’ve been Ningo. They thought that he had used his office as MP and minister to move it to Prampram where he hails from and they’d refused to go to the Assembly. There’s misunderstanding and he told them. From 2013 to 2014, funerals and every activity with invitation sent to him, he’ll say Sam go, the people need to know you on the ground.
And then in 2015, the year of the primaries after almost 3 years of that declaration that he had made, without recourse to me. I am a small boy but he had agreement. If you’ve changed your mind, it’s only fair that you called me and have a conversation with me. But to go and have a public meeting and declare your intention without having any conversation with me when I had built a movement for 3 years on the back of our agreement. I was not going to back down.”
“So I went to his office at the old Castle at that time, 2 weeks before I picked the forms to officially inform him that I was going to run and even that day when I went there, I was hoping he’ll see and give me the respect that was due me and I say i think I want to run but he didn’t say anything. He said okay we’ve heard, we’ll think about it and I said okay, fine.”
Asked whether E.T Mensah didn’t give him his support from the beginning. Sam George said “If this is the way he wants to go down then we’ll battle to the end.”
He rejected the claim that he betrayed E.T Mensah by saying that “I didn’t bot betray anybody, I sticked to the agreeement that we had, agreement that several people knew. Look, I can call names and I can mention some of them who had publicly spoken about it. Nii Lantey Vanderpure was told by E.T Mensah. The people are alive and you can call them. Call Nii Lantey now on air and ask him. He knew the story. There’re several other people I haven’t heard them speak publicly but Nii Lantey has spoken publicly that’s very I have mentioned his name.”
He seized the opportunity to describe the nature of person he is when he stated that “So when I heard that you betrayed, you betrayed, I am a loyal person to the core but my loyalty doesn’t make me stupid and my loyalty is not blind and I expect people to equally be loyal to whatever arrangement and agreement that we’ve because if you try to cross me, I won’t let you.”
By Vincent Kubi