What ails Rawlings? Kufuor asks

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has expressed shock and dismay at the recent interview granted by former President Jerry John Rawlings to the Daily Graphic for which Mr Kufuor accused his predecessor of making false allegations.

Former President Kufuor emphatically denied that late former NPP Chairman and former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, warned him to drop a case against his son, Larry Adjetey, which he (Kufuor) subsequently obliged.

“There is no truth whatsoever in this allegation. I wonder what ails Rawlings to make him always try to impugn my integrity in his interviews. It is not true that I tried to prosecute Larry Adjetey but relented because his father, Peter, threatened me,” the Spokesperson/Aide of Mr Kufuor said.

Former President Rawlings in an interview with the Daily Graphic spoke about the principles of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, then as candidate, and some alleged incidents during the Kufuor regime.

He said: “When Nana Akufo-Addo took their 2012 electoral loss to the Supreme Court, and we in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in our omniscient manner were humiliating his running mate in the dock, was Nana Akufo-Addo not in court till the case was over?”

“Juxtapose the loyalty Nana Akufo-Addo demonstrated to his running mate against Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings when she was being tried during the Kufuor regime. How many of us in the NDC turned up to show solidarity?

“The 31st December Movement suffered bankruptcy in supporting Atta Mills. How many of us bothered to show up in court to offer her moral support in recognition of the foundation she laid in leading the women from the PNDC to the NDC? During that trial, Peter Ala Adjetey, the then Speaker of Parliament, whose son, NDC’s well-fed Larry Adjetey, was charged together with my wife, threatened Kufuor that if he did not drop the ‘false’ charge against his son, he will personally go to court to defend his son. Kufuor dropped his charges.”

But the statement appeared to have tickled the nerves of former President Kufuor.  

Circumstances

Going into the case of the trial of former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the statement said “the circumstances of his (Rawlings) wife’s (Nana Konadu’s) trial is a matter of public record, available for anybody who cares, to verify. Rawlings should stop posturing as the only person of integrity and truth.”

He said the claim by former President Rawlings that he “borrowed money to help out some NDC members in hardship, during his (Kufuor’s) administration” is playing to the gallery “as he hypocritically forgets the vindictiveness and hardships his 19-year-long leadership of state perpetrated on the people of Ghana.”

“If he wants to continue to blow trumpets from rooftops about his integrity and incorruptibility, let him do so, but he should leave Kufuor alone,” former President Kufuor added.

Former President Rawlings has over the years not shied away from jabbing his successor on issues of governance and alleged corruption during his (Kufuor’s) tenure, a situation that led at one point to some courtesies of former President Rawlings being withdrawn during the Kufuor administration.