My posture was out of discomfort, not hatred for Mahama – Rawlings

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has denied claims that he deliberately sat and turned away from former President John Mahama at a funeral they both attended in the Volta Region not too long ago because there is no love lost between them.

A picture of Mr Rawlings sitting and looking away from Mr Mahama became the toast of social media recently and attracted widespread commentary about perceived and rumoured tensions between the two former Presidents.

However, Mr Rawlings, while signing the Book of Condolence for the Late Mrs Victoria Adzagli Ametefee, wife of Mr Henry K. Ametefee, the Volta Regional Chairman of the NDC, who died in Ho recently, explained that he sat that way because he was uncomfortable in the seat.

According to him, he suffered an injury several years ago when he had a rough parachute landing in some very bad weather – a situation that forced him to be using an orthopaedic foam – which, he noted, he could not carry with him everywhere he went.

“I actually turned toward Mr Mahama more than three times and where is that picture”, Mr Rawlings asked.

“Why did this intruder refuse to circulate my sitting position adjusting myself toward Mr Mahama but chose the opposite?” he wondered, asking: “What purpose does this serve anybody … more so when I cannot go to all places armed with the foam?”

“This is a clear case of misrepresentation of facts,” the GNA quoted Mr Rawlings as saying.