STORY SO FAR: While eavesdropping on a conversation at the beach in the night on a gang discussing their plot to assassinate the Vice-President, Nii Kotey, an angler, in spite of himself, sneezed. The plotters immediately realized someone was eavesdropping on them. They immediately go after him. Nii Kotey beat them to it and ended up at the James Town police station to report what he had heard. The gang, however, traced him to the police station and in a bloody massacre shot; everyone present to death to ensure no one privy to their plot is alive. However, just before they began to shoot, Lt. Clottey, a soldier with the Intelligence Unit of the Ghana Army who was at the police station dives for cover and takes refuge underneath some of the persons who were victims to the shooting spree. Thinking they have killed everybody, the gang left. Lt. Clottey managed to make his way home afterwards. Now, he has to decide what to do.
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He knew he was in a very tight corner. It was his civic responsibility to report a plot to assassinate the Vice-President to the authorities. That responsibility became even weightier because he was a security personnel. Yet, he knew he had to report this particular plot to the authorities may be tantamount to signing his own death sentence. Because some of the plotters were faceless persons within the Presidency and the National Security Secretariat, he may advertently end up reporting to members of the gang who would not only then go underground but also come after him to kill him. After what he went through at James Town police station, he had no doubts that they would eliminate him without blinking if they found out he knew about their plot.
The problem at hand was how to reach the Vice-President and alert her about the plot to assassinate her without alerting whoever is close to her and is part of the plot.
Lt. Clottey stayed in bed, brooding over the best option available. Since he did not know when the plotters would strike, he decided he has to move very fast and hope he is able to reach the Vice-President before they assassinate her. He wondered if it would be prudent to report the matter to the head of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Noah Addy. Then, he could not tell if he too was part of the plot.
It was obvious to him that those behind the plot were powerful people, people who were in positions of trust in the government, and people who were probably the President’s most trusted ally.
He also began to wonder why anyone would want to assassinate the Vice-President, a woman of remarkable qualities without whom President Stephen Marfo would not have won the previous election. She brought a lot of women and young people aboard candidate Stephen Marfo’s ticket, enabling the Union of Social Democrats (USD) to win the elections with 69.35% .
Just 42 years of age, she was a single mother; her husband passed away two years after they both graduated from the Medical School and married.
Brilliant in every sense of the word, she had not bargained for a life in politics, surrendering herself to the medical profession where she had thought she would spend her entire life. Then, on a bright Thursday morning, Stephen Marfo, a no less a person approached her who invited her to join him on the ticket of the USD as his Running Mate.
She, stunned by the request, simply laughed it off, telling the USD flag-bearer, an architect by profession, that she was not cut out for politics.
However, Stephen Marfo insisted, following up with two more visits. He even went to see Dr. Gertrude Mensah’s parents to get them to convince her to team up with him.
“Why me?” he had asked Stephen Marfo one evening when he came to see her again.
“First of all, I think Ghanaians want something exciting and something fresh that can excite them. They are tired of all the old faces. They are even tired of my face. You will bring much more excitement to my ticket as well as fresh ideas,” Stephen Marfo replied.
“You have not answered my question Sir! Why me, there are many more exciting young people around who will love to go into politics. They have the passion for it. I do not. I have a passion for medicine. So, I asked, why me?” Dr. Gertrude Mensah had asked again.
He told her why he had chosen her. Moreover, it was the truth; that he wanted somebody with no scandal attached to his or her name, somebody who cannot be corrupted… somebody who will appeal particularly to women and the youth.
Gertrude later asked Stephen Marfo to give her time to think about his request, to which the Presidential Candidate of the USD agreed. However, there was no turning back when two days later, the ‘Daily Nation’, the most widely read newspaper in the country published that Dr. Gertrude Mensah was in line with the USD to be the Running Mate of their Presidential Candidate. The general excitement that greeted this announcement compelled the medical doctor to decide what to do.