The Member of Parliament (MP) of Ningo-Prampram, SamGeorge, has refuted accusations that he was attacked by national security operatives during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election due to insults directed at the operatives.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Samuel Azugu, Commander of the National Security team told the Commission of Inquiry on the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence that the operative physically assaulted the MP following unprintable and derogatory words directed at him from the MP.
He said the words, as reported to him by the operative, used by the MP were so vulgar that it would be inappropriate for him to share it on live television.
However, appearing before the Justice Emile Short Commission of Inquiry yesterday in Accra, Sam George flatly denied the accusation and insisted that he only asked the operative a question.
“I confronted the National Security operative known as Mohammed Sulley and asked him, if he was a national security officer or a party agent and it was at the point that he assaulted me. I asked him whether he is a police officer or a party agent. That was what I was seen telling the national security operative,” he stated.
After being shown a paper which DSP Azugu alleged were his words to the operatives before the assault, he described them as a fabrication.
“Those words are fabricated. DSP Azugu was not there at the time and he is only reporting what the operatives told him. It makes me sick to suggest I said those words,” he added.
In order to determine his exact words to the operatives, Sam George suggested to the Commission to seek the services of an audio forensic expert to bring finality to the allegations.
He accused the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of State in-charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong and DSP Azugu of peddling falsehood and contradictory statements to the commission.
“I did not arrive with any motorbikes, I did not arrive in the company of Honourable Oko Vanderpuye. I only met him on Legon campus at 6:45am. Again it is been said I was asked by Honourable Oko Vanderpuye to leave the scene with the motorbikers but I did not see Oko Vanderpuije. I did not come in the company of any motorbikers. Again it is been said I went into the house under surveillance with the motorbikers, but I didn’t even know the residence of Mr Delali Brempong was behind the polling station,” he recounted.
On the by-election day, he said he was to coordinate all 21 National Democratic Congress MPs who were given accreditation by the Electoral Commission to monitor the exercise saying that he saw a convoy of heavily armed and masked men in the streets when he I arrived at La Bawaleshie.
The MP recounted that he was at a polling station when he noticed the armed masked men running towards a house which he later got to know belonged to Delali Brempong.
Upon reaching there, he said he asked a man named Double, who was part of the team, to order his men to go back in the absence of DSP Azugu.
The armed men then fired into the crowd to disperse them, resulting in a member of the crowd losing a key.
Sam George noted that he was walking with Double back to the polling station to retrieve the key when he saw a young man being accosted and brutalised by the armed men, which he asked Double to order for a stop.
He said while he was on the verbal exchanges with the operatives, he was hit by one Mohammed Sulley, and then a further time in the neck by another person.
He told the commission that he was in possession of enough evidence to prove that the operatives who attacked him were known members of the the vigilante group, Invincible forces, associated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
On why by-elections were gradually becoming violent in the country, Sam George said by-elections come with heightened interest because they were being seen by the political parties as national elections.
He however disputed suggestions that vigilante groups were structures created by political parties arguing that they were rather owned by individuals in the party who have their own political ambitions.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
