Rawlings Fires Back

The Office of former President Jerry John Rawlings has dismissed allegations by a retired soldier that he ordered the killings of three judges and a military officer in 1982. Ex-Corporal Matthew Adabuga told the National Reconciliation Commission on Thursday that the former President celebrated the news of the killings with a bottle of champagne.

But the special assistant to the former President, Victor Smith told JOY FM that Jerry Rawlings described the allegations as absurd. ''I spoke to the ex-President and I can tell you what he said; he said these are the most atrocious absurdities that he’s heard in his life''.

According to Mr Smith, the ex-President regretted that the current government is entertaining coup plotters and using them to ''throw mud on him''.

''He said to me that in the coming weeks, we will hear his reaction, I presume from him, in either a statement or in a media interview''. Mr Smith however noted that the ex-President is not the least surprised by the statements made by Mr Adabuga because ''we are aware that it was masterminded by the Kufuor administration to malign him as much as possible to destroy the solid opposition that the NDC provides for this country''.

He also alleged that the international community is aware that the Reconciliation process is targeted at ex-President Rawlings. ''We were in South Africa recently; everybody has seen through it that everything is targeted at one man''.

The ex-President’s aide predicted that the NPP government will lose the next elections because it has spent the past two-and-a-half years in office persecuting officials of the former administration instead of developing the country.