A communication member of the NDC, Sam George has apologized to CPP’s General Secretary, Ivor Greenstreet, for his comments which many have described as an attack on the former’s disability.
Moments after Mr. Greenstreet passed a damning verdict on President Mahama’s leadership, Sam George posted on facebook: “Ivor Greenstreet apparently needs some elevation to see the Better Ghana.”
His post attracted an avalanche of criticism on social media.
The Ghana Federation of the Disabled and the Convention People’s Party (CPP), who felt his comment was insensitive, demanded an apology from Sam George.
The advocacy officer at the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Isaac Tuggun described Sam George’s statement as an indirect attack on Mr. Greenstreet’s disability.
“If the better Ghana agenda is generating the expected result, do we need to stand up on our feet to see that? We don’t.”
He called for Sam George to apologise to Mr. Greenstreet in order to “put everything to rest”.
In an interview with Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoh, Sam George said his statement was misconstrued and that he was “taken aback by the twists and spins attached to his comments.”
According to him, he was referring to the elevation of the thinking of Mr. Greenstreet but not his disability. “It was a discourse about philosophy and thinking and nothing to do with disability,” he said.
Mr. George claimed he had tried unsuccessfully to reach Mr. Greenstreet on phone, and put on record that “my statement in no way sought to malign Mr. Greenstreet”.
Although he stuck to his guns denying mal-intent towards the CPP General secretary, Mr. George offered an apology to persons offended by his comments.
“But in anyway if my statement did affect his [Ivor Greenstreet’s] sensibility, I respectfully and from the deepest of my heart, apologise for any inconvenience that I have caused him, and the National Federation for the Disabled and the National Council for Persons Living with Disability because it has nothing whatsoever, absolutely nothing to do with his disability. It has everything to do with philosophy, it has everything to do with politics…”
Communications Director of the CPP, Nii Armah Akomfrah has welcomed the apology.
“What we want to hear from Sam is what he has said. Sam George sometimes needs to think before making such statement,” he said.
