The Forum for Justice (FAJ), a youth group based in Damongo constituency has called on one Mr. Manuel Quaye, the Special Aide to Samuel Abu Jinapor to desist from attacking ex- President John Mahama. Formed in 2019, one of the group’s objectives is to defend the legacies of John Mahama and protect his image.
At a press conference in Damongo, the Convener of the group, Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese said the NDC affiliated group will not sit unconcerned and allow Quaye to continue to show gross disrespect to the most successful politician in Gonjaland. He said Quaye is following the foot steps of his boss, Samuel Abu Jinapor. He said
“Mr Quaye who spends most of his time now in Gonjaland because he aides Samuel Jinapor, has decided to use our brother, John Mahama as his chewing stick and rain insults and naked attacks on his person. What we do know is that, his boss, Samuel Abu Jinapor was one of the selected Northerners in the NPP to set the agenda of denigrating and attacking the person of John Mahama.
The unfortunate thing is that, Mr Manuel Quaye seem to have been trained by his boss to take after him. The gentleman only about four days ago, in reacting to the message of H.E John Dramani Mahama when he visited Damongo, wrote on his Facebook handle “John Mahama is mentally unhealthy; we’ll forgive his ignorance”. We consider this as the highest form of insult on the person of President John Mahama which we wouldn’t take kind to,”.
Read details of the statement below.
PRESS STATEMENT
03/12/2020
SUBJECT: A RESPONSE TO THE ATTACKS ON THE PERSON OF H.E JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA BY THE AIDE TO SAMUEL ABU JINAPOR, MR MANUEL QUAYE.
Good morning to you all.
Colleagues in this struggle, ladiee and gentlemen of the press, welcome to this emergency press conference which has become necessary given the exigencies of the time.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here this morning for a very simple but important exercise; to tell you about a story of a young man who was trained to attack and mock our very venerable John Dramani Mahama. In forming this group somewhere mid 2019, we did indicate that one of our primary assignments is to defend the legacies of President Mahama, protect his image and his person at all times and to further his agenda for a second bid for the Presidency. For this reason, we have been monitoring the political space, especially social and mainstream media in search of anybody or group of persons who peddle falsehoods, malign, mock or attack the person of our respected and most successful politician in Gonjaland and in Northern Ghana at the moment, H.E John Dramani Mahama.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is on this note that we called you here to address the issue surrounding the incessant attacks on the person of John Mahama by the aide to the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor. Mr Quaye who spends most of his time now in Gonjaland because he aides Samuel Jinapor, has decided to use our brother, John Mahama as his chewing stick and rain insults and naked attacks on his person. What we do know is that, his boss, Samuel Abu Jinapor was one of the selected Northerners in the NPP to set the agenda of denigrating and attacking the person of John Mahama. The unfortunate thing is that, Mr Manuel Quaye seem to have been trained by his boss to take after him.
The gentleman only about four days ago, in reacting to the message of H.E John Dramani Mahama when he visited Damongo, wrote on his Facebook handle “John Mahama is mentally unhealthy; we’ll forgive his ignorance”. We consider this as the highest form of insult on the person of President John Mahama which we wouldn’t take kind to.
In reviewing the activities of this same gentleman since he was appointed as an aide to Samuel Jinapor, we have seen his deliberate attempt to insult, lie and denigrate the person of John Mahama. We recall that when H.E Kwesi Amissah Arthur passed on, the same baby serpent on his same Facebook wall to accused President Mahama of murdering his former Vice President. This became a very serious issue across Gonjaland. We thought the outrage that followed his unfortunate remarks will teach the said young man a lesson, but we have realized that it has become part of him just like boss in the past.
The same Manuel Quaye likened President Mahama to the notorious armed robber, Atta Ayi, in response to Mrs Joyce Bawa description of President Mahama as incorruptible. We are not gagging anybody including Manuel Quaye from criticizing President John Mahama, but to use that opportunity to attack his person is what we won’t countenance any longer. We can tell the difference between an insult and criticism. To say the Former President is mentally unhealthy cannot he likened to criticism but a pure deliberate insult.
Charity they say begins at home. We have built a dozier of related attacks on John Mahama which we will share with you. In some instances the said boy referred to John Mahama as a thief and a corruption institution. All these without providing any evidence. But should we blame him? He is gradually fitting his feet in the shoes of his boss, Samuel Abu Jinapor, who insulted, attacked and peddled worse forms of falsehoods on the person of John Mahama since 2012. We will walk you through some of the instances of his attack on President Mahama by Samuel Abu Jinapor in order to give you a clearer context of the issues under consideration.
Addressing students at the All Nation’s University College in Koforidua on the 25th September, 2012, as reported by Modern Ghana, Mr Samuel Jinapor said…”If one compares Nana Akufo-Addo to President Mahama, I can say with all my breath that Nana Addo is far better, because he is incorruptible, has never been corrupt and will never be corrupt, so Ghanaians will have a trusted person who can protect the country’s purse”.
He said President Mahama has been cited in a number of corrupt deals under his government and cannot be trusted to protect the nation’s purse as he and his cohorts would use it to enrich themselves. Interestingly, Samuel Jinapor now boast about as a rich politician just three years as an appointee. So, by his own standards, is he saying he equally used the nation’s purse to enrich himself?
Again in 2012, Mr Samuel Jinapor convened and led a group known as “young members of New Patriotic Party”. As a Gonja, he was always pushed to respond to John Mahama anytime the latter made any statement or addressed his Northern brethren. On this score, on the 12th of November 2012, Mr Samuel Jinapor addressed the media, and this was what he said about President Mahama. “Mr Mahama is a desperate man, a frustrated, divisive and liar who has no message for the people of Ghana so he has reduced his campaign to tribal politics in the North”. This was in reaction to a statement John Mahama made in Nalerugu in wooing his Northern brethren to support his bid. On the same platform, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor subtly accused John Mahama of working desperately to see the passing and the back of late President Mills so he becomes President.
He said “this is a very reckless statement, which may even be interpreted to mean that he spent his first three years or so at the Castle desperately looking for the opportunity to take President John Atta Mills’ seat. Yes, the President is telling us that he prayed for his chance and now he has it and wants to do everything to hold on to it.”
Speaking at the Trade Fair Centre on the occasion of NPP’s Rally on the 4th of December, 2016, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor said…”President Mahama and his appointees are bunch of branded thieves”. He continued, “…for the past eight years, President Mahama and the NDC government through their actions and inaction; through their corruption and incompetence; through their policy of create, loot and share constitute a threat to the future of the youth of this country”.
Ladies and gentlemen, coincidentally and unfortunately, Mr Samuel Jinapor said this at a time his elder brother, Hon John Jinapor was a deputy minister of power and therefore part of the appointees Mr Samuel described as bunch of branded thieves. At the time he said President Mahama and his appointees were corrupt and milking the state dried, did he consider the fact that his elder brother was part of the NDC government?
On tribal politics, this was what Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor said on the same platform at the Trade Fair,…”I am a Northerner and I am a Gonja just like President John Dramani Mahama. In fact and indeed, I hail from the same town just like President John Mahama. I am a descendant of the great Sumaila Ndewula Jakpa. But I say to the glory of God that come December 7, I am going to cast my ballot for Nana Addo”. On 26th August 2016, on a similar platform, Samuel Jinapor made same assertions; he had this to say…”I am a Gonja just like John Mahama; Infact, my father even told me we are related, but I will not vote for John Mahama”.
Although, when he came to Damongo to contest for the Parliamentary seat and was quizzed by the people on why he was attacking Former President Mahama, he denied flatly that he has never attacked President Mahama and challenged us to provide any piece of evidence to that effect. Today has presented itself and here we are with the trail of instances of such attacks on President John Dramani Mahama. We equally challenge him to deny any of our claims and instances cited here.
Meanwhile, Mr Samuel Jinapor comes to us in Damongo especially to my good people of Langbanto with a cap in hand and asking us to vote for him because he is our brother. Is that not double standards? If you described President Mahama as a tribal bigot because he told his brethren in the North to support his bid of becoming President because we Northerners cannot afford to be Vice Presidents forever, then who are you when you ask us to vote for you because you are our brother from Langbonto?
To quote Chinua Achibe in his Things Fall Apart, “when the mother cow is chewing grass, the younger one watches its mouth”. Mr Manuel Quaye has taken after his boss, Samuel Abu Jinapor. Let me send this message to Mr Manuel Quaye that, he was given a long rope to pull, but he has reached the breaking point, we shall not sit and allow his likes to insult our brother, John Dramani Mahama like his boss was taught to do which he did well and was awarded an appointment ultimately. Manuel Quaye must retract his recent comment to the effect that John Mahama is mentally unhealthy and ignorant or we will advice ourselves.
Thank you.
-Signed-
Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese
(Convener)
Contact: 0244198031/0505489917
