Young NDC members full of sins – Rawlings

Former President John Jerry Rawlings has stated that some young members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) commit evil acts yet they turn round to gossip about him and his family.

According to him, the little ones in the party are vicious with their mouths and tend to spread falsehood about him, his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu.

Speaking during a durbar to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the June 4 revolution in Accra on Monday, he described as ‘false’ rumours spread about him.

He said he is torn between lies and truth when it comes to allegations levelled against the Akufo-Addo government, hence not able to criticise the government due to the lies NDC members have said about him and his wife.

“Some of the little ones are so vicious with their mouths…the kind of sins and nasty evil things that they do but turn around and insult people like Martin Amidu, like my wife, like myself and I wonder if that is my wife they talking about, I wonder if that is me.

“When you say I don’t criticise Nana Addo or the things he does, to be quite honest I don’t know what to believe or to disbelieve because I know some of the things our people say about Martin Amidu, my wife and myself are false,” he said.

The military leader who was a critic of NDC during the term of the late President John Evans Atta Mills and former President John Dramani Mahama, is mostly blasted by NDC supporters for turning a blind eye to the numerous scandals the Akufo-Addo’s administration is faced with.



Background of the June 4 revolution:

The revolution sparked when the then military government of the Supreme military Council (SMC II) of General F K. Akuffo put then flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings on public trial for attempting to overthrow the government on May 15th 1979. This happened because Rawlings was a junior soldier in the Ghanaian Army who with other soldiers were refused to be given their salaries.

Rawlings turned the trial against the government by accusing it of massive corruption and requesting that his fellow accused be set free as he was solely responsible for the mutiny. He was incarcerated. His diatribe resonated with the entire nation as there was massive suffering.

In the night of June 3rd 1979, junior military officers including Major Boakye Djan broke into the jail where Rawlings was being held and freed him, and ostensibly marched him to the national radio station to make an announcement. The first time the public heard from Rawlings was a now legendary statement that he Rawlings had been released by the junior officers and that he was under their command. He requested all soldiers to meet with them at the Nicholson Stadium in Burma Camp in Accra.

The entire nation went up in uproar. The soldiers rounded up senior military officers including three former heads of states, General F. K Akuffo, Ignatious Kutu Acheampong and Afrifa for trial. They were subsequently executed by firing squad.