Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has been vetted twice, Asiedu Nketia too pedestrian - NPP MP jabs

Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie (NPP- Effiduase-Asokore) has debunked allegations against Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu (NPP- Suame), the Leader of the NPP caucus in parliament, that events of his past life were preventing him from offering himself for a ministerial appointment.

According to Dr. Afriye, Leader of the NPP caucus in parliament has been vetted twice; one in 2007 and the other in 2017 to be appointed as Minister of State and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs respectively.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the NDC had told Accra FM that he was in parliament with Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu when issues surrounding how he changed his name from Lawrence Addae to Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu came up.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia stated that the Suame lawmaker knows “we know everything”, hence he settles for parliamentary leadership where there is no vetting.

Asiedu Nketia said this dark past of Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is why he has always stayed in parliamentary leadership of his party without lobbying for a ministerial appointment which will require him to be publicly vetted and where the issue could be used against him.

But reacting to the report, Dr Ayew Afriye told GhanaWeb that the Leader of the NPP caucus “was vetted in 2007 to become a minister of state in what was described by then Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Hon. ET Mensah, as an injury-time appointment. Nonetheless [Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, being] the then deputy Majority Leader, the house wished him well.

“It is also [trite] knowledge that as [the] minister for parliamentary affairs nominee, he was vetted in 2017. Asiedu Nketia should grow up. He has been a Member of Parliament before and I expected him to have had all these facts on his fingertips,” Dr. Ayew Afriye charged. “Going too pedestrian on a former colleague just for political expediency is needless.

He should know better and make assertions grounded on reasonable thinking.”

Some media reports have suggested that Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is said to be coy when it comes to any discussion of his days in secondary school where he was allegedly suspended for alleged burglary and unruly behaviour.

A letter of suspension from St. Peter's Secondary School, a school Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is said to have attended in the mid-1970s, for allegedly breaking into the school’s stores, among others, is alleged to have been written to his father Mr. J.K Addae, by the Assistant Headmaster, informing him of his ward’s activities in school. The suspension letter urged the co-operation of his parents for the suspension over their son’s conduct.

The reports said his original name was actually Lawrence Addae before the alleged incident which earned him disgrace in his teenage years until he decided to put his past behind, turn over a new leaf and gained admission into the then University Science and Technology (now known as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology KNUST) for a Bachelor’s Degree in Designing.

He allegedly changed his name from Lawrence Addae to Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu in the late 1970s as contained in a circular disseminated by the then Director of Academic responsible for Students Affairs. The circular was numbered 2573/Vol.1 of August 9, 1979.