Sir John - 'I won’t apologize to Lordina Mahama' As queen mothers invoked curses on him

 The former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has pointed out that he is not ready to apologise to the first lady, Lordina Mahama, for linking her to the DKM Microfinance Company purported scam. Mr. Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, believes issues such as the DKM saga are of human interest and he therefore does not regret adding his voice to calls for the speedy resolution of the mess. The former NPP General Secretary incurred the wrath of some queen mothers allegedly being sponsored by Mrs Lordina Mahama in the Brong-Ahafo Region who are insisting that Mr. Owusu Afriyie and two other NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) must immediately apologise to her (Lordina) for linking her to the micro finance scam that has robbed many customers of their investments, or face their (queen mothers’) wrath.

Clad in red and black outfits and with bottles of Schnapps in their hands, the queen mothers invoked curses on Sir John and his compatriots for dragging the first lady and her husband into the scandal involving the collapsed micro fi­nance company. Drawn from some areas of the region, the queen mothers poured libation, chanted and called on their gods to deal with Sir John or anybody who would speak against the first lady or try to link her to the troubled microfinance company (DKM).

 Speaking on Accra-based Adom FM Monday, Sir John said, “If they (queen mothers) are really ready to battle me, they should come because I’m not ready to stop talking about such an issue of human interest. In fact, they should just allow the first lady to fight her own battle.” . He accused the traditional rulers of doing the bidding of the first lady instead of showing concern to the affected people – who had lost huge sums of money to DKM.

 In a quick rebuttal, the Dormaa Akyempem Twafour Hemaa, who is also the spokesperson for the queen mothers, Nana Akosua Kumi, said they would deal with Sir John at the right time since he had refused to apologise to Ms Lordina Mahama. “Sir John has faded in politics and just wants to be popular (that’s why he said what he did) and so he should think twice and apologise else we will talk to our gods to deal ruthlessly with him,” she warned.

 Four persons, including Martin Kuudening Delle, the chief executive officer of DKM Diamond Microfinance, are currently before an Accra circuit court for fraud in respect of the scandal. The three other accused persons – Monica Afriyie popularly called Maame Korkor, Nortey Noel, both directors of God Is Love Fun Club and Charles Asum, director of Jastar Motors and Investments Company Limited, are believed to have taken various sums of money from several depositors of their schemes.