<<Print>>

�The next time I meet him I will beat him up mercilessly and go ahead to strip him naked�: These were the words of Siisi Crentsil, believed to be a cousin of President John Evans Atta Mills, when he displayed his �show of power� on radio yesterday. The businessman/contractor who was appointed by President Mills as board member of the Forestry Commission, and had been awarded contracts, was called by Oman FM, an Accra-based radio station, to confirm or deny media reports that he used a 46-year-old Reverend Minister as a punching bag, beating the man of God to pulp for no apparent reason. The unfortunate incident happened mid-morning Wednesday, on the campus of Enyan Denkyira Senior High School in the Ejumako Enyan Essiam District of the Central Region where classes were in progress. The victim was the chairman of the school�s Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Mr. Crentsil, who sounded unrepentant, denied ever beating up Reverend Michael Eshun, District Pastor of United Church of God but boasted: �The next time I meet him I will beat him up mercilessly and go ahead to strip him naked. I would not sit down for him or anybody to insult His Excellency the President�. But according to Rev. Eshun, the President�s cousin slapped him without any provocation after the latter had accused him of erecting sign posts to indicate the construction of a new classroom block for the school with the PTA as sponsors. He said Mr. Crentsil, who had been awarded a contract by the NDC government to construct a dormitory for the same school, did not understand why he (Rev. Eshun) should erect the signpost because President Mills was going to commission projects in the school after the Sunyani congress of the NDC, during his impending regional tour. Rev Eshun told DAILY GUIDE on Wednesday evening that he went to the school to supervise the project and whilst he was on the top floor, Mr. Crentsil climbed up in the company of two others and asked if he (Rev. Eshun) was the PTA chairman. �When I answered him, he said who gave me the authority to erect a signpost indicating it was a PTA-funded project when the President will be visiting the place; and before I could explain, he gave me a hefty slap, forcing me to the ground. �He then asked his bodyguard to go into his vehicle to bring his pistol and in the process he started shoving me around until I almost fell from the storey building.� The Reverend Minister said he started shouting for help, which attracted the teaching staff and students, whilst Mr. Crentsil held the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the ground floor. He said in the process, the students started hooting at him (Mr Crentsil) and at that moment, the Forestry Commission Board member left him, went straight to his ash-coloured four-wheel drive vehicle and sped off. He said he reported the incident to the police who gave him a form to visit the hospital, adding also that he reported the matter to the District Director of Education. �As I speak to you, I am feeling very cold but I got some medicines from the hospital so I will administer it.� Both parties admitted on radio that they did not know each other, yet Mr. Crentsil claimed: �Whenever I go to the dormitory site, my workmen tell me that the PTA chairman was there to insult President Mills�. He said, �The PTA Chairman has been going about bragging that he can defeat President Mills in PTA election. My constituency chairman has also been telling me about it.� He denied flatly that he touched the Rev. Minister despite eyewitness accounts indicating that he was seen holding the collar of the victim�s shirt and shoving him, and also despite Rev. Eshun�s account that his shirt even got torn and he had reported the case to the police. Mr. Crentsil argued that if he indeed attacked Rev. Eshun, he (victim) would have reported the attack at any of the numerous police stations in the area despite Rev. Eshun�s insistence that he filed a complaint to the police and even reported the matter to the District Director of Education. In the end, Rev. Eshun accused Mr. Crentsil of using the name of the President to intimidate innocent people and said, �I leave the matter in the hands of God but you can come over to verify my torn shirt and where he slapped me.�