President beat up Vice III

The latest piece on the Presidential beating is that the medical report for the Vice President has been published and it confirms that there is blood in the old man's urine.

In the meantime, DPA reports ...

HEADLINE: Ghana opposition alliance demands resignation of Rawlings

DATELINE: Accra

Ghana's opposition alliance on Wednesday demanded the resignation of President Jerry Rawlings for allegedly assaulting Vice President Kow Nkensen Akraah at a cabinet meeting last Thursday.

Nana Akufo-Addo, spokesman for the Alliance For Change (AFC), told a press conference that Rawlings has brought the presidency into disrepute and should be impeached if he refuses to resign.

"If President Rawlings refuses to step down, we call on parliament, in the supreme interest of Ghana and her peace-loving people, to take the only course that honour and duty demand - to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president," he said.

Arkaah alleged that Rawlings, who accused him of making derogatory comments about cabinet meetings, floored him with a blow, tore his jacket and kicked him in the groin.

A government statement on the incident said Rawlings ordered Arkaah to stay out of cabinet meetings until he proved his allegations of corruption against cabinet members.

Akufo-Addo said: "The use of physical violence, especially by no less a person than the president of the republic, as a means of settling political disputes and differences is absolutely impermissible in our fledging democracy.

"If in our constitutional democracy not even the vice president is a safe person, if the president can bruatally assault him and get away with it, then no one's personal safety can be guaranteed."

Another opposition leader, Kwesi Pratt, said if Rawlings refuses to resign, "we shall bring extensive pressure, including mass mobilization of the people, to bear on him to step down".

It is, however, highly unlikely Rawlings will resign or will be impeached by parliament where his National Democracy Congress holds nearly all the seats.