Gertrude Mensah suddenly wished she had stood her ground and stopped their coming over to the President’s residence. But now, it was too late. To make matters worse, the First Lady scolded her before they could make their intention for coming there known.
“Getty, I am disappointed in you. Less than 12 hours after my husband handed the leadership of this country to you, you have come running to him, ignoring doctors’ advice that politics is no longer good for his health? I hope you know what you are doing? If something happens to him, I would hold you responsible” she said, grimly.
Dr. Gertrude Mensah’s first inclination was to apologize and immediately leave with the two soldiers. But she decided the harm had already been done with their coming to the President’s residence so it would be better for them to state why they were there, and have matters dealt with before leaving.
“I am sorry, Madam. We have found ourselves in a situation where we have no other alternative than to come here. I would be the last person to come here if there was one. Please forgive me”, Gertrude Mensah said, quietly praying that Lt. Clottey would not make her look stupid before the President and his wife when he explained why they had come calling. He better have a good explanation for their presence there.
The President stepped in, pleading with his wife to hear out the Vice- President. Then he turned to Gertrude Mensah, smiling, and told her he was all ears. President Marfo had no doubt that only a compelling reason would bring his Vice to his home after he handed the reins of power to her. He knew her to be very capable. There were times he as President turned to her for solutions to a serious problem. And her suggestions had often solved serious problems confronting him. As a result, he had quietly come to the conclusion that Gertrude Mensah was better qualified to be President than him. But that was his secret, one he never shared with anybody. So he was taken aback when instead of explaining why she was there with the two soldiers whom he assumed were her bodyguard, she said one of the soldiers would do the explaining.
Linda Marfo glared angrily at her. All three guests could see she wanted to explode with anger but was holding back. For the first time, even Lt. Badoo began to think it had been a mistake coming to the President’s residence. All attention now turned towards Lt. Clottey.
He was calm. He got up and began to speak. He summarized for the President how he came to be at the James Town police station that fateful night where he learnt of the plot to assassinate Vice-President Gertrude Mensah. He went on to narrate the gunning down of all at the police station by Kruger and his men, how he escaped and later got in touch with the Vice-President.
As he continued, Linda Marfo’s hard stare began to soften. She was obviously surprised at the narration. Lt. Badoo was also hearing the complete story for the first time.
Lt. Clottey then took the President through how his Vice survived four assassination attempts that day, from Gloria’s attempt to poison her, the planting of a bomb in her vehicle and Cpl. Attinka’s attempt to shoot her right down to how Phan Xuan nearly assassinated her at the airport.
By this stage of the narration, the First Lady had completely softened, horrified at what she was hearing. The President was dumb stricken. He could not imagine all these had taken place under him. He stared speechlessly at the lieutenant as he continued the narration.
Lt. Clottey touched on how Kruger and co stormed his residence ostensibly to kill him but met their match in Lt. Badoo. Then he talked about the high speed chase which ended with him taking the Vice-President to his home before they went to the airport, his tango with Kruger that led to his being shot in the shoulder and the audacious attempt by Rex Yamoah to inject him with poison in the hospital.