Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, the incumbent MP for Klottey Korle’s convincing defeat of Leeford Kpakpo Quarshie at the just ended parliamentary primaries appears to be a “knockout blow” to former Deputy Chief of Staff, Valerie Sawyerr.
At the close of polls last Saturday during the parliamentary primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Rawlings polled 671 votes representing 53% of the total votes cast.
Leeford Quarshie came second managing to poll less than half of Zanetor’s votes.
But some delegates have accused Ms Sawyerr of trying to thwart the NDC’s chances of retaining the Klottey Korley parliamentary seat.
They claimed prior to the primaries, Ms Sawyerr vowed to do anything in her power to ensure the defeat of the incumbent MP, and truly backed her words with action by allegedly sponsoring the candidature of Leeford Quarshie, a man whose loyalty to the NDC is in question.
According to a delegate and insider of Leeford’s camp who pleaded anonymity, Ms Sawyerr charged her assigns to spread malicious lies about the MP to cause disaffection amongst her constituents.
Her modus operandi included allegedly infiltrating WhatsApp groups and churning out lies and invectives about the MP, sending mobile money to some delegates and holding secret meeting to influence them.
In addition to that, some of the delegates were given GH¢500 each and promising some of them substantial business capital after the elections.
One delegate who only wanted to be referred to as Nii told Journalists after voting that he received various sums of money with a half-piece cloth and asked to go vote for Leeford.
He said he later received a call from Ms Valerie Sawyerr telling him that after voting for Leeford, she will give him more money. After voting, Nii said he was given an envelope containing only GH¢150 said to be coming from Madam Valerie Sawyerr.
He said despite the money, he still voted for Zanetor. When asked why he did so, he said, “At first I believed the lies they were telling about Hon. Zanetor, but when I got a copy of her Green Book containing her great achievements in just two years, I realised the people sharing money to destroy her did not want the progress of this constituency, so I decided to do the right thing.”
A few other delegates corroborated Nii’s story of being given envelopes with money said to be coming from Ms Sawyerr.
When asked what the motivation behind Ms Sawyerr’s actions was, another delegate said, “She is doing that because Zanetor’s name has come up strongly as being considered to be selected as the running mate for Former President Mahama in the 2020 elections. This vexed madam seriously because she has been lobbying for that position.”
They intimated that Ms Sawyerr has nurtured a deep-seated hatred for Zanetor borne out of jealousy for the latter’s rising popularity since she emerged on the political scene in 2015. In their view, Ms Sawyerr perceives her survival in the Mahama camp under threat because of the emergence of Zanetor.
Some claimed Ms Sawyerr led a similar agenda in the run-up to the 2016 general elections pumping huge sums of money to form a group calling itself ‘Klottey Korle for JM’ to campaign for an independent candidate of NPP origin, Nii Noi Nortey against Zanetor. They urged voters to vote for John Mahama only and for Nii Noi Nortey as MP – a phenomenon known in voting parlance as ‘skirt and blouse’ voting.
But that moves infuriated voters who rather voted massively for Zanetor and against John Mahama.
They alleged that Former President Mahama was aware of Ms Sawyerr’s actions but wondered why he remains nonchalant.
Again, Nii alleged that whilst supporters were on the streets celebrating Zanetor’s victory at the primaries, Ms Sawyerr convened a secret meeting with Leeford Quarshie and her assigns to strategise how to thwart Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings’ re-election bid.
From these happenings, it looks as if the Klottey Korle Constituency is all set for an epic showdown in the 2020 elections.
Several delegates lamented bitterly about Valerie Sawyerr’s conduct and called on the party elders to call her to order.
All attempts to speak with Mrs Valeire Swayerr to react to the issues has proved futile as calls to his cell phone were not answered.
