The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been thrown into turmoil following the launch of a controversial book by a founding member of the NDC, Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, titled:Working With Rawlings”.
Already, the book has whipped up bad blood between Prof. Awoi and his good friend Dan Abodakpi, both of who are confirmed heavyweights in the NDC.
Dan Abodakpi who is a former Minister of Trade and Industry, former Member of Parliament for Keta and Chairman of the Volta Regional Council of Elders of the NDC. He has written a harsh rebuttal to Prof. Ahwoi’s book, which exposed demining issues within the main opposition party.
In the book, Prof. Awoi revealed that late former President John Evans Atta Mills blocked the prosecution of at least 100 kleptomaniacs in the erstwhile NPP administration.
In a radio interview on that portion of the book, Prof. Ahwoi stated: “In the month of March 2010 we, I mean some great lawyers of the party and the AG then, had finished preparing a little over 100 criminal dockets against past NPP appointees, we sent it to Jerry Rawlings to see and in the afternoon planned for former Deputy Chief of Staff to announce them and we start prosecution, few hours to the scheduled period, Mills shot it down.”
Prof. Ahwoi revealed that the refusal of late Prof. Mills to prosecute these NPP Kleptocrats gravely angered the party founder and former military dictator-turned-civilian-president, Jerry John Rawlings who was never on good terms with ex-President Mills until he died
mysteriously in office.
“Later in the evening, I was told Jerry was expecting to hear something on the news and was asking what went wrong with the planned idea. I was the one to tell him what had happened and that sparked the remote cause of Jerry’s anger towards Mills’ style,” Professor Ahwoi said.
However, in a sharp rebuttal to the contents of the controversial book, Dan Abodakpi described them as “dangerous aberration”.
“I have read some excerpts of the book and I am convinced that this is a perilous, ill-time
submission at this point in our Party’s history. It is in fact, in several instances, a factually wrong and dangerous aberration likely to create tensions in and out. Is the objective of this enterprise to destroy President Rawlings political legacy? If so, then I can tell my brother and my friend that he is simply wasting his time,” Mr. Abodakpi said in a statement released recently.
“I present my personal statement as I have become aware of some sections of the book attributed to me which are utterly false. One such example of inaccuracy was incorrectly referencing my designation as High Commissioner to Malaysia under President Mahama. Please be informed that I was High Commissioner under our late President Prof. Mills and not President Mahama. Another utterly false representation is with regards to my views on the former First Lady – Mrs. Rawlings and her decision to contest President Mills. I have always maintained that the decision of the former First Lady to contest Prof Mills was not well thought through at the time and therefore not prudent. However, I would never describe her in so derogatory a manner as has been done in the book.”