“I don’t hang out with him, he is not my friend….if he doesn’t want to be my friend I care very little about that, but I care if he does not want to work with me because that is why we were all put there,” this is how the former second Vice Chairman Sammy Crabbe describes his relationship with the Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Ocquaye.
Recounting what brought about this rather ‘hostile’ relationship between the two elephant folks, Sammy Crabbe told host of ‘21 minutes with KKB’ show, Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng that it started when he decided to support current Deputy Majority leader and Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, Sarah Adwoa Sarfo when she decided to contest him during the Party’s primaries.
“I don’t think we have a good relationship…that goes back all the way to Adwoa Sarfo….when she wanted to contest him, and he said no and I said Adwoa Sarfo is only 26-years of age and she is a lawyer, she is up and coming and we cannot stop people from growing in the party we have to open the way” he narrated.
Mr Crabbe who refused to tag the Speaker as a sycophant, however, added that he would consider it very problematic if the Speaker is petty enough to still hold grudge over the fact that he disagreed with him and supported Adwoa Safo or that he still thinks his decision to support her was wrong. If that is the price to pay for their friendship he stated, it is one he is very well prepared to pay.
“I did what I believe and if for that reason it has to end up in this frosty relationship, then fine I don’t have to be friends with him,” he said.
Prof. Mike Oquaye, during the NPP’s primaries in 2011 ahead of the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections was rooting for his son Mike Oquaye Jnr to succeed him as Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency.
His dream was truncated after Sarah Adwoa Safo beat Mike Oquaye Jnr in the primaries and subsequently won the elections to become the MP for the area.
Adwoa Sarfo had Sammy Crabbe playing an instrumental role in ensuring her victory in the primaries and the elections. This has since created somewhat ‘bad blood’ between Sammy Crabbe and the current Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye.