[ 2014-07-24 ]

I rescued Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey from death but... - Kofi Portuphy
National Coordinator of the National Disaster
Management Organization (NADMO) has disclosed that
he helped rescue former Chairman of the opposition
New Patriotic Party (NPP), Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey
from Liberia during the country's civil war in the
1990s but was given a raw deal when the tide
turned.

Kofi Portuphy, then Director of the then National
Mobilization Programme (NMP), claims he personally
played a major role in helping to snatch Jake and
his wife from the claws of death and got them
seats in the last Ghana Airways flight that left
Liberia with Ghanaian refugees in February 1990.


“Jake would have been dead by now if I did not
rescue him with the help of ECOMOG soldiers
because Charles Taylor attacked his [Jake] hideout
and killed all the people there after I helped him
escape,” he added.

Kofi Portuphy made the disclosure on Asempa FM’s
Ekosii Sen programme during a one- on-one
interview with show host, Kojo Asare Baffour
Acheampong (KABA) Wednesday while discussing his
decision to vie for the chairmanship position in
the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).


He said the former NPP Chairman, then 'penniless',
worked in his office registering refugees to fend
for his [Jake] family. This notwithstanding,
Kofi Portuphy said when the NPP came to power in
2001, it was the same ‘ungrateful’
Obetsebi-Lamptey, then Chief of Staff, who ordered
him out of his NADMO office.

“It is rather amazing that after all the
sacrifices when NPP came to power Jake came to
sack me from my office,” he stated.

Citing his rescue mission of Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey
as his commitment to sacrifice for humanity
“irrespective of who you are”, Mr. Portuphy
said he will give of his best to see the NDC
succeed. “For 32 years I have done
humanitarian work in this country; my work is to
sacrifice for the party because NDC is the party
by the people and for the people”.

He is confident of winning the Chairmanship slot
because “having conducted some polls, I have
straightened the rough edges and people understand
the need for change”. Kofi Portuphy said his
vision is to see the NDC as a formidable party
using its social democratic principles to improve
the lives of Ghanaians.

Source - Asempafm

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