There was high drama at the backdoor of parliament on Friday when the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Enoch Teye Mensah, lost his cool and descended on the mother of one of his grandsons, for daring to confront him in public over remittances.
The lady (name withheld) had gone to the MP for Prampram and the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare to collect money for her son’s upkeep because the minister’s son has abandoned his responsibilities, but this landed her into deep trouble when the minister decided to drop all parliamentary mannerisms to deal with her in a very ungentlemanly conduct.
According to the lady, she has a son with one Jerry Acquaye Mensah, who is a son to Hon. E.T. Mensah. The child is now aged nine, but the said Jerry Mensah, who is alleged to be the father of the child, has abandoned all his duties to the child. In that hat vein, the lady approached the Minister for Employment and Social welfare, who is the grandfather of the child, to take responsibility for the upkeep of the child. She said however that anytime she goes to the Minister for assistance, he would rains insults and invectives on her.
The lady said that at one time, he threatened to release his wild dogs to chew her if she ever came there again. Asked about the husband’s whereabouts she said that she cannot say because she has not seen him for over nine years.
Jerry Mensah is believed to be the same young man who, in the 1990s took a young lady to a hotel for a good time, a matter which was broached by the media at the time because he was then in school. One of the eyewitnesses to the incident reported the minister as saying, “Go away from me you foolish stupid prostitute. Do you think I will give you money again? Go and look for your husband. I did not open your legs to impregnate you. Go and look for the person who impregnated you. That is why I educated that boy so that he can take care of his wife and children.”
After these utterances E.T. Mensah added, “You can send me to CNN, Daily Guide or wherever, I don’t care. How can I be responsible for someone else’s irresponsibility?”
E.T. Mensah then warned the young woman that if she ever came to parliament again he would disgrace her more again. The incident happened in the full view of other members of parliament including Hon. Irene Naa Torshie Addo, the MP for Tema West, who kept telling her colleague to cool down but he would not listen.
“This girl is annoying me. How can she follow me to this place? Do I owe her? Am I the one who impregnated her? She should get off and stop this nonsense!” E. T charged.
Later the MP for Tema West called the young lady and gave her fifty Ghana cedis to go and not come back again, but in conversation with the young lady, she said that she would keep on bothering the minister until he produces his runaway son. Later when the Daily Searchlight contacted the Minister he shrugged him off and refused to answer questions on the incident.
