Why Prof. Mills Boomed: NPP Planning Coup

As various reasons continue to be given for the boom-like declaration last week by President Mills, The Statesman can confidently say that the former law lecturer was goaded into making his ill-advised declaration by a security report prepared by National Security Coordinator Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), which all but accused the NPP of planning to over throw the Mills administration.

The Security Coordinator, who our checks at the Castle say was at the airport when Nana Akufo-Addo arrived in the country last week Sunday, was so alarmed by the overwhelming number of NPP supporters who came to welcome their 2008 flagbearer that he informed his boss he had to find a way to flex his muscles and take the initiative or risk losing the plot. an imminent coup d'état by the largest opposition party. Intelligence information reaching The Statesman newspaper from its scouts at the Castle indicates that, on the very day Nana Akufo-Addo arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, National Security Coodinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), had already positioned himself and his team of handpicked intelligence officers at the KIA. His report, together with others prepared by other equally hawkish members of the Mills administration, painted a picture of an imminent coup d'état by the largest opposition party.

The move followed an earlier proposal that Nana Akufo-Addo be put under discreet surveillance to assess his capabilities and strength as the next Flagbearer and make recommendations regarding ways to jettison any future attempts at running - in case he still had enough clout as he did in the last elections. According to our sources at the Castle, an overzealous Gbevlo-Lartey, who had had a hard time annexing the position that was fiercely contested, found in the arrangement an opportunity to up his ratings in the eye of the President as an intelligence officer of substance, who should be trusted. Gbevlo-Lartey, The Statesman was told, needed to prove to the Fante Confederacy, who had recommended Brigadier Nunoo Mensah for the job, that he deserves the slot.

His boisterous show of power at the corridors of National Security, which had resulted in fisticuffs with subordinates, our intelligence sources revealed, were all part of the ploy to sell himself, and prove that he would not be an instrument in subverting a Mills administration. He also wanted to prove that the allegation that he was ready to protect JEA Mills with the same zeal that he utilized the full force of 64 Reserve Battalion to protect John Jerry Rawlings was not just mere talk. To drive home forcefully that message, he wired the Castle a report that created the impression that the NPP was on the verge of staging a public demonstration capable of bringing the Mills government down.

The report, the paper was told, was couched in classified information about a stampede, with the audience portrayed as a multitude singing the Halleluia Chorus on the streets of Jerusalem to welcome the Messiah. Mills, who had been silent all this while about vigilante car seizures, ugly noises in Parliament about ex-gratia awards as well as Ga Dangme youth activists" and spokesmen's insults against the man who handed over peacefully to him, suddenly panicked - and did the unthinkable, while April was yet weeks away. But his woes were far from over, as Akufo-Addo arrived just two days after the Minority in Parliament had called on the President to rein in rampaging supporters of his party or they would advise themselves.

The race was now on among his spokespersons to name who exactly the President meant when he made his thinly veiled threats. As reported by this paper last Friday, the two men currently speaking for the President, Mahama Ayariga and Koku Anyidoho, made conflicting statements on who had raised the president"s ire the most, either the Minority or Nana Akufo-Addo This public disagreement over the facts resulted in the latest of the running turf battle being waged by the two men.