Gbevlo-Lartey In Lion�s Den

The former Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Hohoe, Victor Herman Condobrey, peeved about what for him are the political machinations of the National Security Coordinator, Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, to undermine him, last Friday roared into Oman FM: �Gbevlo-Lartey has touched a lion.� Mr. Condobrey sounded defiant, threatening to call the bluff of the national security coordinator, said to be obsessed with imposing his son, Nestor, as a parliamentary candidate for the NDC on the Hohoe North constituency. Condobrey has therefore aggravated the woes of the National Security Coordinator, who is still licking the wounds he sustained when some NDC activists demanded his dismissal by President Mills. They claimed his continued stay in office was not in the interest of the NDC as they described him as number one state enemy. Agitated NDC members had besieged the Kokomlemle headquarters of the party in Accra on Wednesday with placards, some of which read �Mills Choose 2012 Or Gbevlo Lartey,� �Gbevlo Lartey Is A State Enemy�, �Stop Killing Our Party Spirit�, �Stop Fighting Our Joy Within NDC�, �We Want Peace In NDC� and a host of others amidst chants of �Gbevlo must go�. Gbevlo-Lartey said the demonstration was instigated by some unnamed officials of the party. The protest was orchestrated by �one man; somebody who thinks that he is the richest person in this country; somebody who thinks that he looks after everybody; somebody who thinks that everybody should kneel down before him; not me Larry.� The former Hohoe MCE cast aspersions on the integrity of the former Commander of the Commandos so graphically and emphatically. He is peeved that the National Security Coordinator is engaged in untoward moves to have his �unemployed� son, Nestor, nominated to vie for the Hohoe North seat on the ticket of the NDC. He also fired a worrying allegation against the coordinator, claiming that he was �cooking� security reports to the President and feeding him (President) with lies. Coming on the heels of the demand that he be removed from office by an NDC group a few days ago, the National Security Coordinator is having a full plate of challenges, the worst perhaps since he assumed the critical office of coordinating national security issues. Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey, he said, had been making nocturnal visits to Hohoe, all in a bid to impose his son on the constituency in flagrant violation of party constitution which requires no such political activities take place before the opening of nomination in places where there are sitting MPs. His �unemployed� son was distributing money and agriculture power tillers to groups of party activists he alleged, adding that people were being enticed with police recruitment, an activity which according to him, was going on now. �His boy is giving out cars to people,� he said. He accused the national security chief of inciting the writing of a letter by a certain Salifu to the EOCO to have him probed and is demanding the release of the report from the investigation. Ghana, he said, had had many national security coordinators but none had meddled in partisan politics like Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey, he alleged, adding he was doing all these to the detriment of national security. �Is that the kind of a national security coordinator we should have in the country?� he asked. �We have seen national security coordinators but how many of them have been involved in politics the way this man is doing?� Gbevlo-Lartey�s son, he said, had never worked before and failed to meet the requirement of having lived in the constituency for at least two years. Regarding the auditing of his stewardship which the national security coordinator caused to be undertaken, he was emphatic, �I am not scared of being probed. I am not like other people who would beg not to be probed.� According to the former MCE, before he was yanked from his post, Gbevlo-Lartey sent emissaries to him over his son�s ambition. �He sent his younger brother to tell me that he wants his son to vie for the seat and I told him that when it is time I would look at it. A constituency executive was present at the time,� he said. He disclosed that the national security coordinator was behind a recent counter press conference after an earlier one had been held, questioning whether Alfred Wayome had anything to do with the press conference in which he the former MCE was at the centre. �I do not think he should continue as national security coordinator. He wants a political platform and must be given the opportunity,� he said.