This Man; Oko Vanderpuije! Video: Accra Mayor Arrests ‘Trotro’ Driver For Honking His Car Horn

Courtesy myjoyonline.com
If there is one man in Ghana today, who never stops making the headlines, then it is Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the well known bearded Mayor of Accra. This one man who is so synonymous with controversy knows how best to makes news of his own-and most importantly for all the wrong reasons. Excerpt that he has not been caught smoking crack; he would have been a best fit for Toronto's Major, Rob Ford; or more perhaps Justin Trudeau. In Ghana he is no different from the Tweaa DCE, Gabriel Barimma; who continues with his loose talks.

From ridiculous chasing out of over 15 000 hawkers which even led to the ripping off of ears, to the locking of offices, the mayor continues to fascinate many Ghanaians with his political and leadership antics.

In his early days when he started making the headlines with his ''I have a dream'' lines and trying to mimic Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr., I knew this man would go a long way to be eerie and sarcastic. Back then it seemed merely a thought. But then it was not long when he proved me right with his works to rename the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, Accra Sports Stadium; this he succeeded in 2011.

This naming spree continued till he landed with this controversial one in July 2013. Without pity and no sense of patriotism and honour for veterans of the state, the most affectionately called Oko V solely and with all the impunity and power exuberance, publicly declared that the Accra Hockey pitch has been renamed after the late President Mills. This waywardness attracted huge criticism and bashing from well meaning Ghanaians compelling Madam Theodosia Okoh to even plead for mercy on behalf of this cunning city runner. Thankfully the presidency intervened and Madam Oko held her honour.

Since 2011 many including assembly members and market women have called for the head of the mayor with or without his bushy beard.

Without honour, the Mayor has had room to operate and has gone on and on with his gang-styled leadership. To the extent that journalists have even had their share. In September this year, the mayor ordered the arrest of multimedia journalists ''claiming the journalists were cooking up stories to disgrace the government, as far as the demolition exercise at Mensah Guinea was concerned''.

When his city continues to be engulfed with filth and more people continues to die of cholera, some of us have held the opinion that the least to come from the mayor will be to hold down his beard to spark more controversies.

Yet he went ahead to make one out of the just ended clean-up campaign. Then this Wednesday afternoon I visited myjoyonline.com, only to read; ''The Mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije ordered the arrest of a 'Trotro' driver for honking his car horn''. This Oko Vanderpuije! 'Oooooooooh'. This one man mayor; he has finally given me reason to call him names.

Watching the video and listening to his rhetoric's as he went about his orders to the extent of heckling a man working hard to earn a living out of the bad economy that has emerged out of the abysmal leadership of him and his likes, I thought he is not a man befitting a city mayor. But this Ghana and this is politics. Even convicted DCEs' gets second chance and corrupt officials remain at post to flaunt their 'loot' and so the president deems Oko V befitting. 'Apuuuuuuuu'.