The office of former President Jerry John Rawlings has replied Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, the founding member of the opposition, who recently released a damning book that purport to catalogue the gory details of the history of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In a statement released today and made available to Whatsup News, the former President counters by saying the book is full of lies.
Prof. Ahwoi has said, late President Evans Atta-Mills had incurred the wrath of Mr. Rawlings when he refused to prosecute alleged corrupt officials of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration led then by John Agyekum Kufour.
“The book is generously economical with the truth given that President Rawlings supported President Mills consistently from the year 2000, much to the chagrin of many of those who morphed into his post-victory supporters in 2006,” Mr. Rawlings said in his statement.
“President Rawlings was critical of President Mills’ administration, there is no denying that, in usual manner, this was done openly and with the best of intentions. He had meetings with President Mills offering counsel and suggestions strictly to the good of Mills’ presidency and that of his government. Rawlings has always remained consistent in his open and bona fides criticisms of President Mills’ administration which, to date, are still outstanding matters.”
The rebuttal from President Rawlings tackled each chapter of Prof. Ahwoi’s controversial book, pointing out what the ex-President described as deliberate misinformation on the true state of affairs during the budding stages of the NDC.
In the book titled ‘Working with Rawlings,’ Prof. Ahwoi narrated several issues within the NDC, including the genesis of Mr. Rawlings’ hatred for late former President John Evans Atta Mills.
According to him, when the NDC came to power in 2008, it had penned down over 100 names of the previous John Agyekum Kufour administration of the NPP who have been found to have stolen public funds and were being marked for prosecution.
However, late Prof. Atta-Mills, fearing possible retaliation from the NPP and had refused to prosecute these officials. This drew the angst of Rawlings who never stopped bashing his former Vice President till Prof. Mills died mysteriously in office.
Among the narration of Prof. Ahwoi is the bizarre incident where Jerry Rawlings, in a show of authority over an errant General Secretary of the NDC at the time, Bede Ziedeng, grabbed his [Bede Ziedeng]’s testicles as punishment during a public event.
According to Mr. Ahwoi, Mr. Rawlings reportedly ignored the presence of top executives and squeezed Mr. Ziedeng’s testes hard for almost two minutes. Risking further embarrassment, Bede Ziedeng was could not scream as he endured the excruciating pain with a contorted face and dilated eyes.
This is the second time Mr. Rawlings is releasing a statement to debunk Prof. Ahwoi’s book.
In his earlier statement, said Prof. Ahwoi and his brothers (also founding members of the NDC) are the bane of the party and are bent of running the party to the ground. “Much as I find it tiring and tedious to be engaging in self-defence when I have given my all, all these years, I will soon deal with the callous agenda of bile by the likes of Kwamena Ahwoi, who are desperately seeking control of the NDC party. The NDC could, should and has survived on the authority of the word but if care is not taken, it will collapse and drown as has been happening, on the word of those in authority,” Mr. Rawlings wrote.
Several others in the NDC have also disputed accounts in the book citing them, this includes former Trade and Industry Minister and ex-Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, expressed anger at the book, describing its content as “dangerous”.