The Greater Accra Regional Minister Henry Quartey believes there are those within the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who wish to see him fail.
The minister has in recent times received commendations from the political divides as well as from civil society because of his fight against poor sanitation and congestion in the heart of Accra.
He revealed his curious observation when he spoke at NPP’s Regional Delegates Conference in Accra on Thursday, 14 October 2021.
“We sit here and say, ‘break the eight’, ‘break the eight’ and you are holding meetings among yourselves to bring somebody down. I am sad today and I will explain why.” Quartey told the audience.
“When the president gave me the position to be the regional minister, he, among other things, wanted me to be able to unite the party at the grassroots. That I have been doing, and, so, I thought people will stop speaking behind our backs”, the minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central, said.
He added: “Just last week, some people met and said ‘I am getting too much power in the region, so, they are planning to bring me down. But when you do this, how do we break the eight. All I am doing is working for all of us. All we care about is our personal ambitions but let’s all realise that we have one agenda: To break the eight”.
Quartey also cautioned his party members against “washing dirty linens in public” and advised unity as the elections of 2024 approaches.
This is not the first time the minister has publicly claimed to have enemies.
In June, while promoting his “Let’s Make Accra Work” campaign on radio and television stations, Quartey said he had uncovered a plot by some Agbogloshie traders to kill him to stop plans to relocate them from the market.
The traders, mostly onion sellers, who were unhappy with news of eviction from their current place to the abandoned Adjin Kotoku site, had vowed to take nocturnal actions, said Quartey.
But the minister said he was unperturbed and remained strong in his quest to make ‘Accra Work Again’.
“Whether they like it or not, we will move them because we have made an alternative arrangement for them. I have heard they have gone to some mallam [spiritualist] to kill me. They are kidding.
“They should tell the mallam [spiritualist] to return to his hometown because so far as God exists, nothing will happen to Henry Quartey, and by July 1, 2021, we shall move them,” he said on an Accra-based Net 2 TV.
