JJ Weeps Over NDC Attacks

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Former President Jerry John Rawlings is not a happy man, as key and influential figures in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) keep tormenting him and his family each passing day.

Spokesman for Mr. Rawlings, Kofi Adams summed up the frustrations of the ‘old man’ when he spoke on various radio networks across the length and breadth of the country yesterday, trying strenuously to defend the Rawlingses over the issue of their accommodation which has eventually degenerated into an abduction issue.

With ‘stupid ministers’ falling on each other to denigrate the NDC founder, Kofi Adams said there was a deliberate and orchestrated attempts to cause disaffection for Mr. Rawlings using an Accra-based private radio station belonging to acolytes of President Atta Mills.

The spokesman said Mr. Rawlings was well aware of such covert moves by members of his own party to undermine him.

He cited the supposed abduction of a photojournalist from The Insight newspaper, Dauda Mohammed, by supposed agents of the Rawlingses as a classical example- indicating that the former First family was not happy about these developments and the attacks on them by influential members of the party and government.

“This one; it is not the opposition that is doing it, it is our own NDC members,” he alleged.

For some time now, Mr. Adams said, “we’ve picked up intelligence reports that even from within our own party, some government appointees this is (sic) what they’ve been thinking, this is what they’ve been up to, to do in the Rawlingses…It’s amazing but President Rawlings has worked so tirelessly to bring his own party back to power and yet some government elements feel he is the last person they want to hear about, the last person they want to deal with.

So anything they will do, in close partnership with journalists ready and willing to do him in, they will manage…This is a classical example of one of those things that have been put up.”

Though he would not disclose the identity of any individual or group of persons in the NDC he described as detractors of the Rawlingses, Kofi Adams questioned the reason why the alleged abduction of the cameraman was first aired on Radio Gold, owned by the Ahwois, stressing that greed and lies could lead to the party’s collapse.

“The first station they called into was Radio Gold. If it was true that (sic) why should a party founded by the former President have his own party members doing this to him…greed and lies is what will destroy this party and our government. And some of us we’re getting tired of this,” was how he put it.

Mr. Rawlings’ Spokesman therefore considers the accounts of Dauda Mohammed and his colleague Duke Tagoe, both from the Insight newspaper, which suggested that the former was abducted by agents of the Rawlingses when they went to his private residence at Adjirigano near East-Legon in Accra to take pictures of it, as concocted.

This, according to him, was because they are part of a group of selected journalists brought together with the objective of “doing in the former President.”

No matter the length they go to pursue this supposed objective, Mr. Adams, who doubles as Deputy General Secretary of the NDC said, those elements in the NDC and their journalist-agents would not succeed in carrying out their hidden but now open agenda since it would fall flat.

“When you listen to their account of events, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, you don’t need to be a security expert to know that these are persons who have been put up to do this.

They made an arrangement but did not know that they’ll be exposed…these are persons put together to do in the former president, but it will not wash,” were his exact words.

Pratt Boy Grabbed

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 13 July 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A reporter of The Insight newspaper who went to the Adjirigano private residence of former President Jerry John Rawlings with his colleague to take shots of the building was picked up by men suspected to be security details of the former president.

The two journalists, Dauda Mohammed and Duke Tagoe, had gone to the place to take the picture of the building as part of a story they were doing regarding the ‘homelessness’ of the former first couple.

But minutes after they arrived at the scene and attempted to take pictures of the building, Duke, who escaped the arrest, narrated that a vehicle which had been patrolling the area pulled up and ordered his colleague, Dauda, to enter.

The former President has dissociated himself from the alleged abduction. As at press time, Dauda had been freed.

Obviously aware of the danger that awaited him, Dauda, who is a photojournalist, declined the unsolicited offer of entering the house and took to his heels whilst the vehicle and its occupants, suspected to be agents of the Rawlingses, pursued him into a nearby bush where he was allegedly captured and dragged on the ground.

Duke said a BMW with registration number GW 8180 R took Dauda to an unknown destination whilst he (Duke) managed to escape to report the incident at the East-Legon Police Station.

Duke said he suspected the former first couple had a hand in the capture of his colleague although they denied any involvement in it.

It is believed that the two journalists went to Adjirigano to take pictures of the building to do a story about the unfolding events concerning the accommodation issue of the Rawlingses, after former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings had told the whole world that they were looking for a place to rent due to government’s supposed inability to provide them with a suitable shelter after their house was razed down by fire on February 14.

Managing Editor of the newspaper Kwesi Pratt Jnr. expressed dismay at the development.

He told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that he could not fathom why a journalist would be prevented from taking shots of a building which had not been designated as a security zone.

He therefore did not see the wisdom in anybody saying his reporters should have taken permission from the owners of the building before attempting to take the pictures since, according to him, they did not enter the house but attempted to take the pictures from the street.

Meanwhile, the office of Mr. Rawlings has denied having anything to do with the incident.

Spokesman for the former President Kofi Adams was on various radio stations yesterday defending the Rawlingses, saying that no such incident took place at the Adjirigano house.

He claimed the story was a fabricated one, adding that any attempt to ridicule or put the Rawlingses in a bad light would backfire.

A statement put out by the office later expressed surprise at the story, stating “no one within the residence has accosted any intruder or passerby and any attempt to link persons in the residence to an alleged assault is a blatant lie and mischievous.”

The statement said “the caretaker who was the only person within the premises has reported no incident whatsoever and confirmed that he is unaware of any incident taking place within the environs of the house. He has been within the premises performing his duties and has not ventured outside.”

Almost five years ago, Wednesday July 27, 2005, Mr Pratt went to take his memorable ‘just-one-shot’ of the African Regent hotel which was a subject of a controversy near President John Kufuor's private residence at Airport West.

He however did not take the shot from the entrance of the hotel, which would have meant walking on the main road to the president's house.

The Police had built a heavy presence in the area prior to the midday deadline Mr. Pratt had issued. He took the shot from the top of the railway bridge near the Shangri La Hotel with no molestation whatsoever.

Konadu Boys Hit ‘Stupid’ Ministers

Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 12 July 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR) are at it again; this time round, hurling insults at two young deputy Ministers, virtually describing them as stupid.

At the receiving end of these insults are the deputy Ministers of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng and that of Environment, Science and Technology, Edward Omane-Boamah, for ostensibly opening their mouths too wide against former First Lady Nana Konadu, who appears to be nursing a presidential ambition.

The two deputy ministers, who were said to be displaying “flowery stupidity, mental incompetence and unbridled arrogance,” by FONKAR, were said to have commented on the reason why the former first couple continued to stay apart after their official residence at Ridge gutted fire.

In a statement signed by Ransford Vanni-Amoah and Dela Coffie, founder and communications director respectively, on behalf of the group, they expressed reservation about comments made by the two deputy Ministers about the accommodation issue of the former first family which has become an issue for public discussion since Nana Konadu said she and her husband had been compelled by circumstances to look for a place to rent.

The group said it took exception to the reckless and cold-hearted comments by the Minister (s) that the Rawlingses had rejected all provisional accommodation offered them by government, since according to them, Agyenim-Boateng lied that Mr. Rawlings liked the facility but his wife and their idol rejected it.

That, they said, was because the fact on the ground did not support “such reckless assertion and we are unnerved by the Minister’s shallow-mindedness and his attempt to turn the Rawlingses against each other.”

“Just as we thought that Herbert Mensah, the man in the centre of the negotiation, has clarified the issue, Omane Boamah, deputy Minister of Science and Technology, reiterated the earlier position by James Agyenim-Boateng on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme on Saturday 10th July 2010,” the statement said .

FONKAR therefore wonders why “responsible Ministers of state will display such flowery stupidity, mental incompetence and unbridled arrogance in this sensitive issue”, saying, “To suggest that Mrs. Rawlings rejected the facility on the grounds of preference rather than security considerations is ridiculous, unfounded and deplorable stunt.”

The group has therefore asked the Chief of Staff, Henry Martey Newmann, to come clear on the issue to set the records straight since it is of the conviction that what has been put in public domain is nothing but a deliberate lie, because “we are amazed at the level of extreme obsession by people in government to run down the Rawlingses and will not sit by and allow ‘strangers’ in the NDC to destroy what has been built for well over 19 years.”

The leadership of FONKAR said it was compelled to issue this statement because it had the conviction that “the display of unmatched folly by James Agyenim-Boateng, Omane Boamah and their likes, by spewing out nonsense, is becoming unbecoming.”

Rather than tolerate plurality, they noted with emphasis that “the President and his advisors have continued to use their position as a platform to engage in behaviors that are untypical of the NDC.”

The group has therefore asked President Mills to show leadership and get rid of ‘political vultures agent-provocateurs’ whose sole aim was to destroy the party with their greedy and politics of attrition, whilst calling on the Rawlingses to remain calm in the face of undue provocation.

“Rather than engage these natters and rabble rousers and fall knee-deep into their maggot-filled cesspit, the Rawlingses must exercise maximum restraint to preserve their nobility and stature among their admirers,” the group said, adding “after all, there will be no NDC without the Rawlingses.”

The group has therefore vowed heaven and earth to deny those it calls ‘unscrupulous elements’ the unsavory reputation they are desperately seeking to earn.

Should they continue with their agenda to discredit the Rawlingses, FONKAR says “we will have no alternative but to declare them WANTED in the NDC.”