Some Ningo-Prampram National Democratic Congress (NDC) members are up in arms against their Member of Parliament (MP), Sam Nartey George, following the MP’s alleged statement that some anonymous Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) have vowed to unseat him in the party’s next parliamentary primary if he continues to attack them.
According to a statement issued by the Constituency Deputy Communications Officer, Shehu Usman Mohammed, Mr George’s claim that unknown LGBTQI people reached him on his telephone to warn him that if he continues to be loud against their operations in the country they will come at him is yet one of his usual attention-seeking acts and must be ignored.
The Deputy Communications Officer, in the statement, said that the claim could not be true and that it was just a move by the MP to court sympathy votes ahead of the next primary.
“We have taken note of the claim by Hon. Sam George, MP for the Ningo-Prampram Constituency, that he received a call from an unknown person who said they [LGBTQ people] will use their financial power to ensure that he [Sam George] losses the next parliamentary primary election he may be contesting in his constituency so that he would not be able to have a speaking voice in the country again.
“The MP is said to have made this claim on GhOne TV last week. This claim by our MP has been published by websites like Vanguard.com and modernghana.com. We find the claim as calculated to tarnish the image of whoever will contest the MP at our next primaries in the eyes of all right-thinking citizens in the constituency.
“Obviously, the claim is to make those who will not be able to see through to arrive at the conclusion during the party’s next constituency primaries that Hon. Sam George’s opponent is being financed by the LGBTQ group. By so doing, the vast majority of Ghanaians in the constituency who are vehemently against this kind of debase sexual orientation will automatically rally to his cause against whoever is contesting him,” he said.
The statement continued that: “One does not need to be a rocket scientist to see through the inferior tactics the MP is employing. Why will LGBTQ people target only him when he is not the only MP who has spoken against their attempt to have their activities recognised and legalised in Ghana? It is a fact that some MPs from both sides of the political divide, including Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, the leader of the NDC caucus in Parliament and MP for Tamale South, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, who is MP for Bawku Central, Hon. Clement Apaak, MP for Builsa South, Hon. John Ntim Fordjour, MP for Assin South, and Hon Adwoa Sarfo, MP for Dome-Kwabenya have all spoken publicly against LGBTQ’s attempts to gain a foothold in Ghana. Their comments have been carried by both the electronic and print media and are on the World Wide Web. Why have they also not received the same call from the LGBTQ threatening to ensure they lose in their next primaries?
“Hon. Sam George should stop the attempt to smear decent persons who will want to contest him. We call on Ghanaians, especially NDC supporters in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency to ignore the claim by our MP, which is a figment of his own imagination. There is no way any such group as the LGBTQ will play any role either covertly or overtly in the primaries of the party in the constituency because the constituency’s next primaries will be contested, as has always been the case, by men and women of high moral standards who will cringe at the very idea. When the time comes, let any citizen who wishes to contest in the primaries do so without let or hindrance. He or she must not be put off by Hon. Sam George’s claim,” the statement concluded.
His press statement followed the burning anger among some branch executives of the NDC in the Constituency, who said they have deserted their MP even before the party starts its re-organisation in the area, for his alleged derogatory comments that in their view suggested that they, as delegates, could be influenced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) community to vote against him in the next primaries.
The Ningo-Prampram MP, last weekend, allegedly made an allegation that his political future had been threatened after he recently condemned LGBTQ advocates and their financiers in the country.
According to him, after making his comments on TV last Friday, February 19, he received a call from an unknown person the next day who said, they [LGBTQ], would use their financial power to ensure that he loses the next parliamentary primary he may be contesting in his constituency.
“You know when I spoke first last week Friday on a TV network, over the weekend; I got a call and that’s what has irritated me and made me go all out that let’s have an all-out fight. Someone told me that look, do I [Sam George] know how rich the LGBTQI community is? And that they will bring money and make sure that the platform that I have as an MP that I think gives me the right to speak…they will meet me at my primaries,” the MP said on GHOne television last Friday.
But in a sharp response to the claim, some of the branch executives said Mr George already knows that he does not have the slimmest opportunity of winning the next parliamentary primary in the constituency, hence the courting for sympathy from the public.
They said his ‘early conceding of defeat’ ahead of the primaries does not come to them as a surprise.
“He knows we will not vote for him even if he engages the devil himself in a fight. He knows we voted for him during the general election just for the sake of the party,” a group of residents at Dawhenya angrily noted.
Some of them noted that his claim that the LGBTQI community had threatened to finance somebody to unseat him during the primary is a direct attack and an outright insult on anybody who would contest him in the next primary.
“We all know his opponent when it comes to Ningo-Prampram NDC and he is an established businessman and a self-made man with enough resources and does not need any financial support from anybody or LGBTQ community to be able to beat him (Sam George). His opponent has the financial muscle to beat him any day, anytime.
“To suggest that his opponent, who is married with children and an avowed anti- LGBTQ will condescend so low to accept evil money from such a despicable group to finance his political, is to say the least disrespectful,” they averred.
A visit to both Old and New Ningo as well as Prampram revealed that most electorate were not happy with their MP’s wild claim.
“He is not the only MP who is standing up against the evil activities of gays and lesbians in the country. Many of his colleagues have boldly spoken against them and we have never heard any of them making the wild claim that gays and lesbians have threatened them. Why he alone?” One of the residents queried.
“What our MP is trying to do is to set an agenda to paint his opponent, who he knows will win the next parliamentary primary, as somebody who accepted support from the gays and lesbians should he (opponent) beat in in the next primary which is very obvious. He has been painting his opponent all the time and we have been silent but this time we won’t sit back and allow him to continue it. Enough is enough,” one of them said.