Kufour wanted to persecute, humiliate Rawlings – Victor Smith gives insider account

Former President, John Agyekum Kufuor upon assumption of office as president in 2001 as Commander-In-Chief of Ghana Armed Force wanted to arrest his predecessor, Jerry John Rawlings and take him into custody, former special aide to the late Jerry John Rawlings, Victor Smith has alleged.

“Rawlings under Kufuor suffered some indignities, people have talked about withdrawal of his courtesies for a former President or a very senior person in our country, in the first 6 months of President Kufuor coming into power, in June 8 his house was surrounded and they wanted to take him, they wanted to arrest Rawlings but for the intervention of some of us in terms of calling the media and the public about this development Friday the 8th of June maybe things would have been terrible for Rawlings at the time.” he recounted

Speaking on TV3’s Key Point programme monitored by MyNewsGh.com, after the Kufour’s government failed to deal mercilessly with Jerry Rawlings, the heat was then turned on the appointees who served under Mr. Rawlings.

“Some of his ministers were incarcerated, Kwame Peprah and the rest and so he thought the then government decided to pursue his appointees”, Victor Smith, former Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom told the host.

This according to Victor Smith started the seeming feud between the late former President Jerry John Rawlings and Mr. John Agyekum Kufour till date.

“He [Rawlings] thought that it was an agenda so he wanted Atta Mills to [also] pursue Kufuor’s ministers for the same reason. What I know is that he felt there were a lot of injustices against him. Atta Mills did not pursue people and that led to a bit of friction between him and Rawlings.” Victor Smith revealed.