Victor smith ducks and dives

On Tuesday, he was described by The Statesman as the hand behind the conspiracy to scare critics of his boss, the former President into submission. Now, he claims there is a clear “conspiracy to criminalise me”.

Hoping and skipping from one radio station to another since The Statesman exposed him, the ducking and diving have now taken a new turn with a bizarre allegation from Victor Smith that the “illiterate” man he drafted the letter for may be an NDC turn coat set to destroy him.

In a rejoinder sent to this newspaper on Wednesday night, he said “on the 19th of March, 2001 I was approached by one A.K. Mensah (A purported NDC supporter from Kumasi) to help him write an (SIC) letter to protest to journalists who have been insulting former President Rawlings in their publications.”

Victor Smith then went on to admit drafting “some points for him.” But the spokesman who concedes he cannot remember exactly what he wrote for A.K. Mensah is increasingly appearing to show signs of acute amnesia.

In an earlier exchange with the editor of The Statesman, Asare Otchere-Darko on Robert Clegg’s show on Radio Gold, Victor Smith described the person(s) he drafted the warning letter for as member(s) of the Action Forum, a militant wing of the National Democratic Congress party in Kumasi, contrary to his subsequent assertion of “a purported NDC supporter from Kumasi.”

The draft document which ends with the words that Kweku Baako Jnr., the Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide and a lecturer at the School of Communications, University of Ghana, Mrs Amoakohene, “be warned” has been described by the draftsman, Victor Smith, as containing no “threat or plot to harm.” This forced Asare Otchere-Darko to ask him whether a man of his political standing and social responsibility should have agreed willy-nilly to assist an “illiterate” to draft such a letter. His response was equivocal, implying he did what he did innocently.

He was at it again on Joy FM’s 6.00 pm news, on the same day after drafting a rejoinder that the alleged unschooled A.K. Mensah could have doctored the draft document, which was in Victor Smith’s handwriting!

On Joy FM, Smith said he only assisted an illiterate member of the NDC who was bent on issuing out a warning letter to the media practitioners, presumably, the same A.K. Mensah. According to him what he did amounted not to a letter writing but rather he structured the letter for the illiterate members.

However, Smith could not even recall a single sentence from what he drafted. He denied ever harbouring a sinister motive in drafting the letter. This does not augur well for his own discerning ability on what is proper and what isn’t. This also raises serious concern of the ethics calibre of the people that the former President has rounded himself.