Flashback: JJ is planning a coup - Kennedy Agyapong

MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, on December 9, 2006, accused former president Jerry John Rawlings of planning a coup to the take the country aback.

Making this wild allegation on Citi FM thirteen years ago, the loudmouthed politician asserted that J.J Rawlings' Special Aide at the time, Victor Smith was handed over a correspondence meant for his boss.

The correspondence, he alleged, was related to a coup being planned for Rawlings by his friends in Surinam and Venezuela.

According to the lawmaker, he had photocopies of the four-paged documents concerning the purported coup plot by the NDC, which was headed by Rawlings then.

“The letter that was given to him is contained four sheets and we have photocopies of them,” Ken Agyapong said.

Rawlings, in response to the allegations levelled against him stated, that he did not have to go looking for weapons outside the country when there were a lot within his reach.

Read the full story originally published on December 9, 2006, on Ghanaweb

The New Patriotic Party(NPP) MP for Assin North, Hon. Kennedy Agyepong, has stated that there is evidence of a “coup dream” by former President Jerry John Rawlings.

According to him, evidence of the alleged “coup dream” and its funding by some South American countries is in the custody of the authorities.

Speaking on an Accra-based private radio station, CitiFM, the MP blew the lid over what appears to be a confidential report about the coup plot allegation leveled against the former president by his predecessor, President Kufuor recently.

Details of the alleged coup moves, until the MP’s action, were not let out, not even when the former president demanded evidence of the allegation leveled against him by President John Agyekum Kufuor recently.

In what was an ordinary radio programme, the MP, in reaction to a pro-NDC newspaper’s provocative report, touched on what until now, was known only by the inner circle of the national security machinery.

He revealed that Victor Smith, the former President’s Special Aide, was handed over a correspondence meant for Mr. Jerry John Rawlings.

The correspondence, he stated, was related to a coup being planned for Rawlings by his friends in Surinam and Venezuela.

As Mr. Rawlings was not available, Mr. Smith, he said, received the letter from the bearer, a certain Mr. Frank Davids.

The former president’s special aide would have been a dead man had this happened under the Rawlings’ regime, Hon Agyepong said.

The NDC, he said, is out to destroy the country but they will not be given the chance to do so.

The security apparatus, he disclosed, has photocopies of the documents concerning the coup plot, which he said, are contained on four sheets of paper.

“The letter that was given to him is contained on four sheets of paper and we have photocopies of them,” he alleged.

Asked who the said Frank Davids is, he said, “You will know at the appropriate time.”

Giving further details about the letter, the MP said it was addressed to former President Rawlings.

“Because former President Rawlings was not available at the time, the letter was given to Victor Smith,” he said.

President Kufuor had recently accused former President Rawlings of planning a coup in the country with the assistance of an oil-rich country.

The allegation drew the ire of the NDC and its founder, who demanded evidence of the accusation.

For a long time, the allegation remained the topic of discussion on the political landscape, a development which was attributed to the former president’s coup record.

Mr. Rawlings, in refuting the allegation, stated that he did not have to go seeking weapons outside when according to him, the guns are within reach- in the country.

The former Ghana Air Force pilot is credited for two successful coups in the country.

His first coup, which he and his junta colleagues decided was the last such take-over, was followed by another after the late Dr. Hilla Limann was handed over power, following a democratic election.

This coup was detested by his former pals, who described it as a betrayal of their previous decision not to tamper with the democratic dispensation then in place.

The MP’s disclosures will perhaps prove to Ghanaians that the allegation after all, is not baseless, but steeped in documentary evidence being kept close to the chest of the national security apparatus