The late former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, who died in a London hospital last month, has been laid to rest over the weekend but, not a happy soul.
Though the late former National Chairman of the NPP was not in the best shape of health for some time until his demise, The aL-hAJJ can confirm that Jake, as he is affectionately called, died a sad man.
Intelligence reports available to The aL-hAJJ indicate that the astute politician was overwhelmed with grief and shock over what a family source described as the “treachery and betrayal” by people he thought were his allies and close associates.
The late Obetsebi Lamptey was reported to have arrived to this conclusion after the NPP National Conference held in Tamale in 2014 in which he was “painfully” defeated as National Chairman of the biggest opposition party.
“Following his painful loss of the position of National Chairman in Tamale, Obetsebi Lamptey had been a worried man, especially about how he had compromised his responsibilities as leader of the party in order to ‘smoothen’ the path for his preferred choice of a flag bearer, only to be embarrassingly and miserably dumped few hours to the election at the 2014 NPP conference,” a family source told this paper.
According to the source, feeling let-down and paid with the wrong coin as result of the ill-treatment and embarrassment caused him, the late Jake developed complications which worsened his already not-too-good health condition leading to his painful demise in the United Kingdom.
Until his death, he was reported to be undergoing chemotherapy in South Africa but suffered a relapse and was subsequently transferred to a London Hospital.
Though immediate family members are tightlipped on what in particular caused his death, it will be recall that, few days after the late former NPP National Chairman’s defeat at the Tamale conference, his special aide and NPP Communication member, Asamoah Gyamfi inadvertently revealed that his then boss, was overwhelmed with grief and shock over how his childhood friend and 2016 NPP flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo and his acolytes stabbed him (Obetsebi Lamptey) in the back when they “dumped” him few hours before the party’s conference in favor of his deputy, Mr Fred Oware, who also contested the National Chairman position but lost to Mr Paul Afoko.
Close associates of the onetime NPP flag bearer aspirant and first Chief of Staff under the Kufuor government, who was also credited to be the brain behind former president Kufuor’s victory in the 2000 elections, said Jake was virtually reduced to just a mere “pedestrian” member of the party after his defeat as National Chairman.
Some of his associates, who do not want their names mentioned, accused Nana Akufo-Addo of betraying his once bosom pal saying, “Jake defied all odds and pushed for Nana Akufo-Addo to be the NPP’s obvious choice for the 2016 presidential election only to suffer humiliation at the last minute during our last congress.”
“Jake spent the better part of his stay in office as national chairman working for Nana Akufo-Addo’s retention as flag bearer. Look, no one will tell you this but I’m telling you for the first time, Jake did what the NPP’s constitution was not required of him to do because Nana Addo agreed to support him for his second term bid. It was a mutual agreement between the two of them, but Jake only realized Nana Addo’s support for him was a sham when we got to Tamale,” a source close to Jake revealed.
Another source told this paper that, unknown to Jake and “those of us on his team”, Nana Akufo-Addo was torn between supporting him (Jake) and Fred Oware, “but do you know what, Nana Addo was pressured to dump Jake for Oware and that led to his defeat.”
“After this painful ordeal, Jake did not give up on Nana Addo’s third presidential bid. He was still prepared to work for the party’s flag bearer…but even doing that was also difficult because those around Nana Addo never allowed him to go near him. They did not involve him in anything…and the most painful aspect was that after he lost the chairmanship, nobody ever called or invited him for any meeting or whatever?” The source fumed.
Adding that, “although Jake was not in the best shape of health, he was nonetheless very disappointed over his non-inclusion in the affairs of the party and the flag bearer’s campaign…even on his sick bed he was still interested in seeing Nana Akufo-Addo become president”
“I can tell you that Jake had a lot of pain in him leading to his death. He felt letdown by his own people. The party leadership succeeded in pushing him into political hibernation and now he is no more. Ever since he (Jake) lost the national chairman post, did you ever see him partake in any NPP activity? ” a grief stricken Jake aficionado told this paper amidst dripping tears.
Similar sentiment was earlier expressed by NPP Communications team member who also doubles as an aide to Jake, Asamoah Gyamfi, in an exclusive interview with The aL-hAJJ immediately after the Tamale congress which his late boss performed abysmally.
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