Your 'fake' gestures to me in public needless – Kufuor tells Rawlings

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has hit back at ex-President Rawlings saying the ex-military leader exhibits sheer hypocrisy and often plays to the gallery pretending to have any good relationship with him in public, which is not the case.

Mr. Kufuor thus asked his counterpart to be advised on the cosmetic cordial regard for him in public functions, which does not really reflect in his actions against him.

This follows comments by his counterpart JJ Rawlings claiming that he[Kufuor] failed to prosecute a son of former Speaker of Parliament Peter Ala Adjetey while he was in office.

“The 31st December Movement suffered bankruptcy in supporting Atta Mills. How many of us bothered to show up in court to offer her moral support in recognition of the foundation she laid in leading the women from the PNDC to the NDC?

“During that trial, Peter Ala Adjetey, the then Speaker of Parliament, whose son, NDC’s well-fed Larry Adjetey, was charged together with my wife, threatened Kufuor that if he did not drop the ‘false’ charge against his son, he would personally go to court to defend his son. Kufuor dropped his charges.

“How many of these qualities of principled solidarity did we demonstrate towards our own? Instead, people got rewarded with appointments by denigrating and trying to destroy some of us. What money did I not borrow to assist some of our colleagues and comrades who were suffering financially under Kufuor’s regime? Those debts are still on my head today,” Rawlings said in an interview with the state-owned Daily Graphic.

However Mr Kufuor in a statement has dismissed Rawlings’ assertion, saying “there is no truth whatsoever in this allegation. I wonder what ails Rawlings to make him always try to impugn my integrity in his interviews.

“It is not true that I tried to prosecute Larry Adjetey but relented because his father, Peter, threatened me.”

He added: “The circumstances of his (Rawlings) wife’s (Nana Konadu’s) trial is a matter of public record, available for anybody who cares to verify. Rawlings should stop posturing as the only person of integrity and truth.”

“If he wants to continue to blow trumpets from rooftops about his integrity and incorruptibility, let him do so, but he should leave Kufuor alone,”

Spokesperson for the former President, Frank Agyekum in a latest interview on the issue said Mr. Kufuor is becoming choked with the hypocrisy of Rawlings.

According to him, it served no purpose in pretending the good gestures at public places, yet he[Rawlings] is seeking the opportunity to hound his boss, Mr. Kufuor.

“He’s had enough of it. He[Kufuor] has a lot of respect globally and those false claims can destroy his image. There is no point pretending to laugh with him in public but inwardly you have issues against him.

“Mr Kufuor doesn’t pretend when he greets him in public. And so if he cannot maintain that cordial relationship with him, and is bent on always accusing him falsely, to impugn his integrity then we won’t accept that. If he has charges against him he should come out and make them, but the untruths held against Mr. Kufuor is becoming too many”