Lamptey Mills: Kufuor�s Award Deepened My Woes

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Great Lamptey-Mills Schools Complex and a National Honours winner, Mr Enoch Lamptey-Mills has described the recent media blitz on his marriage affair with a fully fledged adult as a political attempt by elements in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to put a political tag on him. �I am a technocrat and not a politician and all those who think by tarnishing my hard-won reputation by foul means in the media will cow into docility are wrong since I am not going to relent in my quest to assist the vast majority of poor Ghanaians to access education.� Mr Mills made this statement in a strong worded letter in reaction to recent media hype on his alleged marriage affair with a minor. He said he has been quiet over the matter, hoping that the dust will settle to enable him continue with the day to day running of his schools but the media publications seems to be a never ending one. He stressed that the fuss being made about his alleged affair with a past student of the school started sometime last year when the then President John Agyekum Kufuor decided to honour him for his contribution to education in the country. He said when he was nominated, people went around asking whether he deserved the award or not. �After all these individuals (my detractors) tried all manner of moves to have my name removed from the list, the then President went ahead to honour me of which I remain most grateful.� Giving the background to the alleged minor marriage saga, the CEO said the issue took place two years ago but he was not surprised the issue is being used in the media to paint the school black. He further stated that there was no issue of forced marriage as of the time the girl became pregnant, since she was 18 years of age. According to him the girl in question is now 21 years old and bettering her grade to enable her gain admission into the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) in Accra, so it cannot be true that �knowing my status in the society I would force a minor to marry me�, he pointed. He recalled that the national award and its accompanying letter came to him as a surprise after some weeks when a friend informed him that his name had been published in the Daily Graphic of 2008 for a national award so it cannot be something I lobbied for adding, �if is the award my enemies want they can come for it�. He stated that his priority is to provide basic, quality and affordable education to vast majority of Ghanaian youth and no such calculated political attempts would deter him from ever achieving his aim. He appealed to the media to endeavour to crosscheck and double the veracity of their information as it assume it embarks on its role as the fourth estate of the realm and avoid being a mouthpiece for tarnishing the hard won reputation of prominent individuals in the country.