MP threatens court action

The Member of Parliament for Amenfi Central, George Kofi Arthur, accused of sexual escapades, is to engage The Heritage newspaper, his accusers, in what appears to be a bitter legal battle.
While the newspaper is out with what it says are detailed accounts of the MP’s illicit activities in his constituency and which is likely to cause him his seat at the next elections as a result of open anger for his aberrations, the MP says he would need his lawyers to make a case for him because the story is false.

“The reporter came to me and I told him it was not true and I wonder why he would go ahead to publish this,” a shattered Kofi Arthur told myjoyonline.com.

While The Heritage accuses the MP of sleeping around with and amassing women for himself, he also thinks the paper has told untruths that should be answered in court.

The paper reported on Monday what it says is the result of a “painstaking investigations over a period of one year” into the activities of the MP and concluded that “immediately after George Arthur won the Parliamentary election of 2004, he decided to hire a room in Accra ostensibly to allow ladies in the constituency who are interested in learning any form of trade in the national capital to come and occupy.

But as our roving reporter uncovered during the course of investigation in the constituency, that actually was nowhere near the MP’s real intention.

His actual objective in investing his money in the acquisition of the Accra accommodation privately was exactly to bring the most beautiful ladies at his holy village to the city and make use of them.

“Of course every lady’s dream is to have a husband of hers and, having no less a person than the honourable young MP to propose to you was, indeed, welcome news to these young ladies.

And knowing where many ladies are most vulnerable, Parliamentarian George Arthur went into overdrive, promising marriage to ladies left and right and they gave in at equal rapidity.”

The paper alleged that the first lady to fall victim to the MP’s trick was the daughter of his own party chairman popularly called Fine Weather in the community. The Heritage said the relationship resulted in a “bouncing baby girl” but the MP has so far refused to remit. “As well, he has reneged on his responsibility to collaborate with other family members to give the innocent child a name.”

The newspaper said the situation has brought strong division within the NDC family in the constituency, “with the chairman sobbing over the fact that for all the financial and other supports he gave the MP during the 2004 campaign his only reward was a disowned grand child.”

The paper also alleged that another victim of the MP’s scheming is his own driver’s fiancé, an issue it says has angered the youth in the constituency

“It is alleged that, after the pregnancy popped up, the MP got it aborted. When the driver confronted his boss on the issue, he had no explanation so the subordinate determined that the only way he could secure his relationship with the fiancé was to quit the job.

“That he did, and now the wretched driver is back in his village engaged in the illicit mining locally called galamsey.”

The paper also said there were several other victims who could not speak about the issue, but “The ladies, after realizing that they had been fooled by the MP, returned to the village to continue the drudgery of village life.

The Heritage can report that all the ladies who were tricked by the MP are back in the village. Some of them contemplated fighting for some compensation as of right at some point.”

The Heritage said the MP’s conduct “has brought a lot of discontent within the NDC in the constituency, as the faithful fear the rival New Patriotic Party could take advantage of what they describe as the moral weakness of their M.P. and the subsequent slump in his ratings to capture the seat which has been the bonafide property of the NDC since 1992.

“To abate the growing discontent, the MP has purchased and distributed several television sets and Canal Plus satellite dishes to the communities where they could watch live European soccer matches.

In addition he has been throwing face saving parties for the people, with the latest one being done on Sunday April 8, this year, at Agona Amenfi - his home town. But guess what, most people refused to attend.

“But in an interview with George Arthur yesterday, he denied all the allegations, just as most politicians want to do when caught pants down.

He, for instance, denied having had carnal knowledge of his driver’s girl. According to the M.P., when he realized that Ama Aya was ex-fiancé to one of his part-time drivers, he even tried to bring the two of them back together, except that the effort proved futile.

“He continued that, when the lady left to the village, rumours spread through the area that he, the Mp, was flirting with her. So his sister who heard the rumour informed the mother who summoned the people in her palace to warn them from peddling false information.

“Concerning Chairman Fine Weather’s daughter, he said he only knew her as a member of the constituency executive committee; nothing more, nothing less.

“He explained further that it was not only in Accra that he hired rooms for the ladies but wherever they wanted to learn the trade.”

But the MP said that all the allegations are false and he was prepared to engage his accusers on any platform to provide evidence.

He admitted renting a guest house in Accra, but he said he took that decision to help his constituents who got stranded in Accra occasionally with accommodation. “I don’t stay there and the place is not for only women, it accommodates men and women and as I speak with you, there are people in that house.”

George Arthur also told myjoyonline.com that he uses part of his share of the Common Fund to support needy individuals from his constituency, as well as helping some to gain employment under the National Youth Employment Programme, with some of the beneficiaries located in Kumasi, Takoradi, Sekondi and elsewhere apart from Accra.

George Arthur became MP for the area after Dr. John Frank Abu, former NDC Energy Minister, declined to contest in 2004 and the mantle was thrust on him. Arthur actually used only two weeks to campaign and won with just l35 votes more than what his closest rival, the NPP candidate- one Kwaakye - got.