Rawlings Buys New Cars At C2.8 Billion

The Statesman newspaper’s independent investigation has revealed that each of the Toyota Land Cruisers bought by the ex-President cost $90,000. The four together amounts to $360,000.

The reason Rawlings’ Toyota Land Cruisers cost that much is that, they are custom-made to suit his specifications. They are for instance, believed to be bullet-proof. The ex-President has therefore been challenged to reveal the source of his billions of cedis, if indeed he is a honest man as he is at pains to make Ghanaians believe. The challenge was thrown to Rawlings through The Statesman by a group of ex-military men, currently domiciled in Europe.

The group said, “If he cannot reveal the source of his money, which of course he cannot, then he should seek out the families of those he killed over ?50,000 loans and ask their forgiveness”. An ex-service man in the group, Corporal Razak Issaka said, “Rawlings is being haunted by his own shadow. “But he hasn’t seen anything yet; the worse is yet to come,” quipped Razak. The Statesman’s telephone line has been inundated with calls from Ghanaians both home and abroad, who have all expressed disquiet about the ex-President’s latest show of opulence and extravagance.

They have called on the government to intensity its efforts at tracing the millions of cedis believed to have been looted by the Rawlingses. It will be recalled that, it came to light a few days weeks ago, that Rawlings has taken delivery of four Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles, the value of which he claims is $136,000. He paid customs duty of ?500,000,000 to have them cleared from the Tema harbour. Rawlings shot to prominence in Ghana’s political history through pretences of being an advocate of the down-trodden and the hungry.

He is particularly remembered for his statement that he is a master of the art of working and thinking on an empty stomach, while wondering where the next meal will come from. Today, he has developed past the down-trodden and is fit to sit and drie only in custom-made vehicles. “If they are men, they should tell Ghanaians the source of their money and stop disturbing our cars with the lies that their friends are the financiers.” Why can’t they name those friends? Asked Mary Brown a trader at the Malata market in Accra.

In a related development, intelligence and security officials have stepped up the search for millions of money belonging to Ghana, looted and lodged in private bank account abroad. Ever since the discovery, that the former President used a fictitious name, Gyamfi Paul to check into a Swiss hospital, intelligence and security officials have had cause to suspect that the ex-President could have stashed away millions of dollars of Ghana’s money, using other aliases! In the same vein, it has come to light that contrary to what Rawlings wants Ghanaians to believe, he is worth billions of cedis.

Already, Kweku Baako Jnr, arguably Ghana’s most crusading journalist has said that he is sitting on information about the wealth of the Rawlingses that will shock Ghanaians to the marrow. Kweku Baako Jnr is currently in Europe in pursuance of his mission to “strip the Rawlingses naked.”

A top investigator, who is part of a team tracing stolen funds through foreign bank accounts controlled by former government appointees, told The Statesman, that Rawlings is only hiding behind a show of else bravado to conceal his stolen millions. “But time will catch up with him” he said.