Kufuor Gagged Esseku

… As Edumadze was made a "Gateman"

Forth night ago, 'The Enquirer' newspaper carried the inside story of how President Kufuor used the Presidency, his power, threats and blackmail to stop NPP Chairman Haruna Esseku from attending the last NPP National Delegates Congress held at the University of Ghana, Legon.

According to the newspaper, President Kufuor allegedly threatened to boycott the NPP Congress if his Party Chairman Haruna Esseku, who had been exposed on tape accusing the President of collecting kickbacks from contractors in the Castle and disbursing them in a non-transparent manner, showed up at the Congress.

NPP gurus therefore trooped to Esseku's house and kept vigil the night before the Congress with some shedding tears to persuade defiant Esseku not to attend the Congress and to step out of the Chairmanship race.

In the event Haruna Esseku did not attend the Congress and he stepped out of the Chairmanship race.

What the 'Enquirer' did not add, because probably it did not know, was that when the night "vigilantes" were leaving in the morning to attend the Congress, they left one man behind – a well-muscled, Hercules-type of 'homo sapiens'. His name is Isaac Edumadze, alias "Hercules Unchained", alias "Big Bully." Edumadze's job was to sit at Haruna Esseku's gate and to make sure the Party Chairman kept his word and did not attend the Congress. Indeed his specific mandate was to make sure that Haruna Esseku did not step out of his gate that day.

And sat there, Edumadze did, in all his mighty talk, frightening the Party Chairman's household out of their wits. And poor Haruna Esseku was too scared of the sheer weight of Edumadze that he did not try any hanky-panky business. He was effectively falsely imprisoned in his own ! home for the entire period that the NPP Congress lasted.

But that also effectively ruled out Isaac Edumadze's participation in the Congress. That is how come the bulky figure of the Central Regional Minister was so conspicuously missing from the NPP Congress. So there they were, two "Fante Kooyoos, sitting it out at home staring at each other while the Ashantis had their fun at the Congress.