Victor Smith Blows JJ’s Aide

Ghana’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Victor Smith, has taken the man who succeeded him as a spokesperson for ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, to the cleaners, saying that he is being reckless in speaking on behalf of the former first family.

He described as irresponsible, the statement made in Tamale by Mr. Kofi Adams over the weekend, about a video recording he (Smith) had given to the Deputy Justice Minister and Attorney-General, Ebow Barton Oduro, on the murder of

Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II in 2002.

The ambassador accused Kofi Adams, who is presently on a tour of the Northern Region with Mrs. Rawlings for the July NDC congress in Sunyani, of having the penchant for misrepresenting the Rawlingses, thus creating problems for them.

Mr. Smith, however, did not give instances where Mr. Adams goofed while speaking for Mr. Rawlings.

He said that Kofi Adams was putting the President Mills government in a bad situation by claiming that there is no justification for the government’s inability to find the Ya-Na’s killers, because the government has in its possession a video footage of what transpired at the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi from March 25 to March 27, 2002, leading to the murder of the Ya-Na.

According to ambassador Smith, he personally interviewed, and recorded one Nantongmah Andani, a man who claimed to be the nephew of the Yaa-Na and was in the Gbewaa Palace when the massacre took place.

“It was a narration that Nantongmah gave me on what transpired in the palace leading to his uncle’s death that I recorded”, the ambassador told The Herald via phone.

Ambassador Smith who is currently in the country, disclosed that he made a copy of the video recording and gave it to Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for safe-keeping.

He said when NDC came to power and the issue came up again, he gave a copy of the recordings, to Mr. Oduro to see whether it could help unearth the murderers of the Yaa-Na.

He said he was aware that Nantongmah, who had just returned from London, was invited and grilled by the investigators, on the matter, adding that Kofi Adams’ spin on the video recording is a misrepresentation of the facts.

“He could have checked from me details of what I have given to Mr. Oduro before going public, giving our brothers and sisters in Dagbon the impression that the government had critical evidence as to the killers of the overlord, and yet was not using it”.

On his part, Mr. Oduro, conceded that he had a recording on a CD-rom from Mr. Smith, concerning the narration of the Ya-Na’s nephew on how his uncle was killed.

He said he made copies of the CD-rom for Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Madam Gertrude Aikins.

He said three other prospective witnesses, “claiming to be eye-witnesses”, had been interviewed on the murder of the Ya-Na, in addition to Nantongmah.

Mr. Oduro expressed frustration at Kofi Adam’s statement on the inability of the Mills’s government to find the murderers of the Ya-Na so far, saying, “this thing is being screwed in a certain direction”.

The Rawlings aide is reported to have told the Joy News, shortly after his arrival in Tamale with Mrs. Agyeman-Rawlings for a tour of the Northern Region, that a tape that could lead to the arrest and prosecution of the assassins of the late Ya-Na and his elders was in the custody of the Mills’ government.

He said, “the tape we are talking about does not say that it was a tape that saw somebody cutting the head of the overload, no, but would be part of (government’s) information gathering. You could see faces, faces that would aide you to arrive at who and who could have masterminded these killings”.