Stop denigrating Rawlings - Integrity Against Corruption warns

A group calling itself Integrity Against Corruption (IAC) within the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region has condemned attacks on the party’s founder, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, for speaking his mind against issues of corruption in the Mills/Mahama-led administration.

The group said those who had made up their minds to denigrate the party’s founder must put a stop to that in order not to incur the wrath of the grass-roots who were suffering the misfortune of the party being in opposition.

A former deputy Chief of Staff under the erstwhile Mills/Mahama-led NDC government, Dr Valerie Sawyerr, had chastised Mr Rawlings for his incessant 'attacks' on appointees in that administration over alleged corrupt practices.

In an article last week, Dr Sawyerr described the party's founder as a 'buzzing mosquito' whose only interest was to criticise the NDC even in opposition, instead of channelling his energies towards the ills of the present New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

Dr Sawyerr’s criticism

Dr Sawyerr’s criticism of Mr Rawlings has since received a barrage of responses from pro-Rawlings supporters, including the IAC who have asked people in support of Dr Sawyerr to desist from attacking the former President.

At a press conference at Agbozume in the Ketu South Constituency, the spokesman for the group, Mr Daniel Hamenu, indicated that Mr Rawlings remains ‘’the moving spirit and energy for the party’’, therefore any move to denigrate him would affect the party greatly.

He expressed disgust at the article by the former deputy chief of staff and comments of some other leading NDC members, including the former Chairman, Dr Obed Asamoah, who is reported to have said Mr Rawlings is not the founder of the NDC.

According to him, “insulting one of our illustrious sons of the land, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, through whose instrumentality we are credited highly on the continent and the world will result in nothing but a deep-seated fracture of our party,” adding that: “We want to put it in simple language, ‘No Rawlings, No NDC.”

NDC’s probity and accountability

Mr Hamenu recalled how the NDC was trumpeted over the years as a party devoid of corruption and also the passion with which founder Rawlings had fought corruption all his life.