Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings is the former President of Ghana
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday July 2 2008
Ex President J.J Rawlings yesterday alleged that the sentencing of Tsatsu Tsikata is a calculated attempt by the New Patriotic Party government to intimidate the people in order to hold on to power.
The sentencing of Mr. Tsikata, a noble citizen, has nothing to do with the false charges preferred against him. It has everything to do with the NPP’s attempt to test the will and capacity of people who are willing to resist this corrupt government.
The former president was addressing the press at his residence at Ridge in Accra. He had convened the media to brief them about the recent political and socio-economic development in the country.
Flanked by his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, some members of Parliament and executives the National Democratic Congress, ex-president Rawlings said “the NPP can no longer rule and have resorted to intimidation of the people.”
He said the international community continues to condemn President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe while showering praises on the NPP administration, adding “the only difference between Zimbabwe and Ghana is that the people there are fleeing that country but over here we have been shut into coercive silence and nowhere to run.”
He said the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, overlord of Dagbon who was killed together with about 40 of his elders as well as Alhaji Issah Mobilla, murdered in the custody of the military were all not guilty of anything but rather “the NPP needed to emasculate itself by stamping an electrifying authority on the citizenry.”
He alleged that known culprits in the murder of Ya-Na were still walking free saying, “Justice has not been done that is why there is still tension in the area.”
The former President said “you have emerged from a difficult revolution .You are too strong for people with questionable characters to rule you.”
He claimed that a senior police officer had to resign from the service because he (the officer) advised against the plot to kill the Ya-Na and himself (ex-president Rawlings) but the NPP did not listen to that advice.
He also said that when the three judges and a retired army officer were murdered, his administration set up a committee to investigate and bring to book the culprits, adding “the Ya Na and Mobilla did not get this.”
He said the NPP administration is silently suppressing and oppressing the people without the attention of the international media, describing the situation as “a shameless class war.”
The former president further said the members of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) did “a shameless job and got rewarded by the NPP.”
He said “the NPP is living above the law; they have a hatred for fundamental truth and have resorted to rule of rule instead of rule of law”.
He also attacked the NPP flag-bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, saying “he keeps singing law order and democracy but it was under his tenure as Attorney General that the NPP set a shameful record of packing the Supreme Court to overturn the Fast Track Court verdict.”
He also said a recent announcement by the NPP Flag-bearer to increase the sizes of the police service to 50,000 is unnecessary, saying “they want to turn the police against you. How far is this idea from black apartheid?”
“Kufuor’s people are too guilty to leave office but no matter what they do the people are determined to show them the exit in the December polls.”
He also had a word for the NDC, a party he formed, saying “not a single lesson has been learned by some of our members. On rare occasion when there is an attempt to offer counselling it was taken too late.
“The NPP would not have had the intoxicated confidence to jail some of our people if we had not allowed them.”
Ex-President Rawlings also urged the NDC supporters not to wait till election day before showing their support for the party saying “do not let anybody from the NPP or anyone from the security agencies to tell you what you know better.
It was supposed to be a press conference, but after his speech the press did not get the opportunity to ask him any questions.
The huge crowd of NDC supporters, that outnumbered the journalists by far, immediately surrounded him to talk to him.
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