The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, yesterday threw caution to the wind and yelled ‘nonsense!’ on a live radio interview after which he banged the phone.
Dr Vanderpuije lost his temper while granting a live telephone interview relating to his alleged involvement in a shooting incident at James Town on Monday where a lawyer had his car tyres deflated by a trigger-happy cop on the alleged instruction of the AMA boss.
DAILY GUIDE reported in its Tuesday, January 13, 2015, edition that the mayor ordered his security detail to open fire on a car being driven by a lawyer, Bruce Thompson.
The reason stated was that the driver was driving too close to Oko Vanderpuije’s vehicle, as a result of which the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive allegedly ordered his bodyguard, who has since been identified as Lance Corporal George Akunor, to impound the driver’s vehicle in a typical Hollywood style amidst shooting.
The incident took place in front of the famous Mantse Agbonaa Park in Jamestown, Accra, in broad daylight.
However, explaining his version on the ‘Super Morning Show’ on Joy FM yesterday, Dr Vanderpuije described the publication as “highly misleading and unprofessional,” insisting he was nowhere close to the scene where his security guard allegedly opened fire.
According to him, the security officer got down to talk to the driver of the vehicle who the officer thought was tailgating them (the mayor and his men), while his driver moved further away. It was later that his attention was drawn to the incident.
“I wasn’t even at the scene; I didn’t order the officer to shoot. It was my officer [who fired the shots]…but to say that I came out of the car and I ordered the guy to shoot is misleading,” he stated.
The Accra mayor, known to be “a no-nonsense man,” has on several occasions attracted headlines with rather aggressive actions against drivers who purportedly flout road traffic regulations.
He has always defended his actions.
The mayor however took offence of a question posed to him by host of the Joy FM programme, Kojo Yankson, suggesting to him that a section of the public believed his staff were taking cues from him because he is quick to intervene in traffic issues.
“Be responsible yourself [and] stop making that kind of statement…Alfred Vanderpuije is a very responsible gentleman. Alfred Vanderpuije cares, and I know administratively how to handle situations. I am not a fool [or] somebody that has lost his mind.
“So for you to have made that kind of statement shows how you have hit below the belt [and] that is nonsense,” the mayor yelled after which he banged the phone.
He dropped a hint that they were trying to settle the case out of police station, indicating that the victim was in his office Monday afternoon.
In a video footage released in November 2014, the AMA chief executive was seen manhandling a commercial bus driver who honked at a crowd that was cleaning up the street, supposedly asking them to move out of his way.
The mayor was angered by the driver’s act, especially when they were attempting to make the city clean.
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