The Sex Scandal: Great Lamptey Mills is a Liverpool Fan (Part 2)

Great Lamptey Mills

I know there is someone out there who thinks this matter should be laid to rest. I think otherwise. Any nation that does not punish evil commands it to be done.

Judges may have the final say in who is guilty or otherwise but I strongly believe that this matter involving the CEO of Great Lamptey Mills Schools, Mr. Enoch Nii Lamptey Mills must never be allowed to die as the female judge ruled. Such death is too unnatural. It is the type of death in our society that is usually followed by spiritual autopsy to falsify medical reports.

There is this fallacious mentality that Africans don't utilize the content of their skulls when it comes to politics and I believe that has prompted Mr. Enoch Nii Lamptey Mills to link his morally treasonable crime to the national awards he received from former President Kufuor. He has attempted to suggest that the dishonourable prominence he has received in the media is an attempt by the ruling National Democratic Congress to tag him politically. Like Liverpool, Mr. Lamptey Mills never walks alone. A lot of people, especially politicians, find it very easy to identify themselves with their parties and spew out the monotonous clichés of our time – witch hunting, political vindictiveness etc. – whenever they are called to atone for their sins.

But in this situation, Mr. Lamptey Mills got it all wrong. At least there are many discerning Ghanaians whose states of minds have not yet been affected by the NDC and NPP madness to the extent that they will reason with this morally handicapped CEO of a school.

In a previous article titled: The Sex Scandal: Great Lamptey Mills is a Liverpool Fan, I listed a catalogue of prominent individuals the world over, who have been brought onto their knees because of their inability to tame their libidinal drives. What many of such people have done is to come out to apologise and resign from their positions honourably. But it is not part of the Ghanaian culture for such officials to admit and resign. Even if they are pressurized by forces in beyond them to resign, they are bound to leave a suicide note in the form of newspaper headlines– “I will clear my name.”

When the Daily Graphic broke the story, Mr. Lamptey Mills said there was no truth in the report and that the paper was being used to soil his hard earned reputation. He was charged and arraigned before the court. All of us were waiting to hear whether the man was guilty or stainless but that has once again eluded Ghanaians like the proverbial foot of the rainbow. The court allowed an out-of-court settlement. This is what stings me like a scorpion.

The matter was reported to the police because the suspect refused to do what he had pledged to do after impregnating the sixteen year old girl and marrying her. Why then should the court again agree on such terms? The question as to whether any ordinary citizen in the shoes of Mr. Lamptey Mills would be allowed to walk away free has been asked many times and is not worth repeating here. What about the future of the girl?

This young girl shall forever live with this social stigma. Though her name has not been mentioned in the numerous media reports, there are hundreds of people who know her. Her school mates, church members, her neighbours and those who know her parents. It may affect her marriage, because those are the times the most hidden secrets are usually dug out.

“Koo, is this the only girl you can find to marry?”

“Why?”
“Do you remember the Great Lamptey Mills sex scandal a few years ago?”

“Is this the girl?”
“She is the one.”
“Thanks for saving me.”
As for coercing the financially handicapped parents to accept an out of court settlement, it must have been easy. But allowing this matter to die will be a bad precedent for the future. Further digging into the matter might have revealed that the affair started at an earlier age. Defilement could have been the appropriate charge.

Child Rights International and some key human rights campaigners in the country have taken key interest in the case. The Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Akua Sena Dansua, has called on Professor Mills to strip Mr. Mills of that Order of the Star of the Volta. National awards should not be given to the morally bankrupt.

The Huhuhuu after the sex scandal was discovered is enough to suggest that this may not be the first victim. The Ghana Education Service has also promised to reach the bottom of the matter and apply the necessary sanctions. Education without morality is as bad illiteracy and anyone who is into education must be morally upright for the children to learn. For if mother crab is crawling, who is going to teach baby crab how to walk?

Like, a Liverpool fan, Lamptey Mills does not walk alone with regards to those who sexually abuse children young enough to be their grandchildren. When luck finally runs out on them, however, the law must be allowed to take its course.

I hope the GES will not come out and bark and go to bed and allow the case to die. The spiritual autopsy must be performed otherwise, the nation will be giving its blessing to the abuse of vulnerable children.

Credit: Manasseh Azure Awuni [[email protected]] The writer is the SRC President of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Read more of his works on www.maxighana.com

Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com