
Retired Commissioner of Police, Mr George Alex Mensah has denied reports that he accused the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia of bribing delegates to vote against him in the upcoming NPP primaries on January 27.
According to him, those assertions were maliciously and diabolically made up to surreptitiously craft a needless feud between him and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Moreover, he reiterated that the allegations were being peddled to create disaffection for him as he has geared up for the upcoming parliamentary primaries of the NPP in the Bekwai Constituency.
In a press release to respond to the issue, COP George Alex Mensah explained that the narratives around the paying of supposed bribes to the delegates in the Bekwai constituency to vote in a particular direction did not emanate from him.
He alleged that a police official vehicle with the registration number GE 7243-19 driven by the IGP’s driver, Inspector Kwakye with one Nana Osei Afrifa on board, visited Bekwai during the vetting of the four parliamentary aspirants.
He alleged, “Both Inspector Kwakye and Nana Osei Afrifa held a meeting with the delegates at the Alpha Guest House, opposite Bekwai SDA SHS where they made their intentions of their visit known to the delegates.
"Nana Osei Afrifa who co-hosted the meeting with Inpector Kwakye categorically told the delegates that they have been sent by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to inform the delegates that he, the Vice President, was looking forward to working with a younger person who is ICT inclined.”
According to the ex-police commissioner, Nana Afrifa posited that the Vice President, therefore wanted the delegates to vote massively for Lawyer Ralph Opoku-Adusei who is one of the four aspirants in the race in the upcoming primaries.
“Having made their intentions known, they allegedly paid an amount of one thousand cedis to each of the delegates who took part in the meeting and indicated clearly that the money was given to them to be paid by the Vice President in support of Opoku-Adusei’s bid,” he alleged.
He further stated that there is an audio clip which was recorded during the meeting in which Afrifa was captured detailing why they were there, who sent them and who gave them the money to be paid to the delegates.
COP Mensah therefore, stated categorically that he never mentioned anywhere that the Vice President sent the driver of IGP Dampare to Bekwai to bribe delegates ahead of the primaries.
“The statement was emphatically made by Nana Osei Afrifa who came to Bekwai by the said police car with Inspector Kwakye who is the IGP’s driver, under the guise of special exercise.
"It, would therefore, be weird if any persons or group of persons leave Inspector Kwakye who drives the IGP and his accomplice, Nana Osei Afrifa out of this unfolding issue and rather make me a target,” he said.
COP George Alex Mensah who recently retired from the Ghana Police Service, has jumped into the political arena with the hope to lead the people of Bekwai as their parliamentary candidate in the 2024 elections.
The vetting committee of the ruling NPP has cleared him fit to contest for the parliamentary candidate position in the upcoming parliamentary primaries of the party in the Bekwai constituency.
He has promised to unite the party and champion their course in parliament if he gets the nod from the party delegates to lead the party as their Parliamentary Candidate and eventually wins the seat on December 7.