The troubles of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Ningo-Prampram Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Samuel George Nartey, over his ‘unsavoury comment’ against the Acting President of the Ningo Traditional Council, Nene Karnor Atiapah III, are not yet over.

A sheep and two bottles of whisky he sent to the chiefs with intent to appease them were rejected. He was rather asked to personally go public on radio to retract the ‘offensive comment’ before coming to the traditional rulers.

Mr Sam George has been fined a total of seven rams and two bottles of Schnapps to appease the chiefs of the traditional area for dragging their names into disrepute over his open castigation of their leader on radio.

The NDC candidate is fighting another battle with his party people in the constituency, particularly ET Mensah, the incumbent MP, who has refused to pledge his support to the person who defeated him in a ‘painful and acrimonious’ parliamentary primary last November.

Sam George, a presidential staffer and communication specialist to President John Mahama, on Asempa Fm, described Nene Atiapah, who doubles as Mankralo of the Ningo Traditional Area, as a ‘lawless’ person for expressing his (chief’s) view on killer electricity tariffs.

He said the chief’s “view doesn’t represent that of the people in the area.”
The presidential staffer pleaded for several hours with the chiefs and elders of the council to cut down the fine of seven sheep to one when he sent one ram to them through some close friends and party sympathisers.

Radio Apology

“The chiefs have forgiven him. He knelt down pleading with them for one hour and 25 minutes with two bottles of whisky in his hand. Considering his statement embarrassing, they have given him the condition to go back to the radio station where he granted that interview and insulted the Mankralo as being lawless.

He should grant an interview and render an unqualified apology so that they will allow the matter to rest.

“…He was there with a delegation of about nine people. He brought a delegation from Ashaiman and all over to apologise to the chief and he did so at the residence of Atiapah together with all the traditional leaders in the area…,” a palace source told the media.

Sam George is yet to render the public apology and appears to be throwing his weight about believing that he is above the law.

It would be recalled that the NDC guru went to town dragging Nene Atiapah along over the chief’s interview in which he claimed that the ECG meters were money-sucking machines behaving like the NDC government; therefore he would not allow them to be installed within his jurisdiction because his people were poor farmers and fishermen who could not afford the pre-paid that had been associated with some inconvenience. He said he therefore preferred the post-paid meters to be maintained in view of the current economic hardship.

The presidential staffer heavily descended on Nene Atiapah, whom he called his biological uncle, describing him as a lawless leader.

“Chiefs are supposed to be agents of development but basically, what my uncle and Mankralo has said is to encourage people to be lawless because at the end of the day, pre-paid meters are going to be installed in this country and nobody can stand in the way of government policy. If you have a chief who will tell you to flout government policy, I don’t think that is the way chiefs are supposed to behave and I disagree with my chief on this.

“What he said does not represent the views of the entire people of the Ningo Traditional Area; it is his personal view and he is entitled to it,” Sam George replied the traditional ruler.

His reaction made the elders and the chiefs of Ningo angry and they threatened to deal with him if he failed to explain his ‘unsavoury comments’ against Nene Atiapah.

Sam George quickly rushed to the residence of the Acting President to apologise secretly, upon which the elders and the chiefs of the traditional council asked him to go public with his apology.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE last weekend, Nene Atiapah expressed shock at the conduct of the NDC candidate towards him.

He advised him to comply with the order of the council to rekindle the cordial relationship between them.

He was also unhappy about the political twist which was being given to the insult Sam George unleashed on him, saying that “It is rather unfortunate that there has been a calculated political twist to the incident intended to draw me into partisan politics. I am very much aware of the constitutional limitation set on the chiefs in this our democratic dispensation and would not allow myself to be drawn into partisan politics.”

According to the Ningo chief, the above was the reason why the traditional council took a serious exception to Sam George’s reaction to the publication without cross-checking the facts.

Nene Atiapah III seized the opportunity to clarify his statement about the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG’s) pre-paid meters on the socio-economic plight of his people.

He pointed out, “What I meant was that the pre-paid meters are not efficient and that when credits are loaded on them they (credits) varnish so quickly that people now describe the pre-paid meters as money-sucking machines.”