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| Mrs. Rawlings Spits Fire |
7/16/2007 |
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The Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, unhappy about the turn of events in her trial and five others in the divestiture of GIHOC Cannery case by the State, has descended heavily on the government, describing the case as bogus with no merit. She believes her ‘celebrated’ trial, which has attracted fresh charges from the prosecution, is an attempt by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to ridicule her and cause collateral damage to her reputation and entire family.
According to Mrs. Rawlings, her trial that has lasted for a period of 15 months now is nothing less than political harassment and victimization originating from an abuse of power and office by President Kufuor’s administration. “This is a complete abuse of the judicial process, complete abuse of office and power, and an indication of political harassment and victimization against me”, she stated in reaction to the fresh charges preferred against her.
Speaking to the morning show host of Nkosuo Radio, Mr. Fred Asamoah, in Kumasi the former First Lady who poured out her frustrations in the trial to residents of the metropolis, also lashed out at the government for allegedly giving her negative publicity since the commencement of the trial. Mrs. Rawlings is being tried together with five others, namely Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, Former Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC); Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance; Thomas Benson Owusu, a former Accountant of DIC; Sherry Ayittey, the Managing Director of the Caridem Development Company Limited and Caridem as an entity.
They are currently facing various charges of conspiracy, stealing, causing loss to public property by dishonesty, intentionally causing loss to public property, obtaining property by false pretence and conspiracy to alter false document. Mr. Rawlings’ better half was initially charged alongside the five others with causing financial loss to the State for failing to pay ¢2.7 billion, being interest which accrued on the sale of GIHOC Cannery between 1995 to 2000.
According to Nana Konadu, the sudden change of the initial charges is indicative of a confused government that is naïve in what it is doing, tagging the move as a waste of state resources by the NPP government. She believed the case would not end putting her into prison because she had enough grounds to prove her innocence and the unmeritorious nature of the charges against her. Meanwhile, the former First Lady lampooned Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu when her host told her the latter had questioned the source of funds for the construction of a house at Agyringaano in Accra by her husband, Ex-President J. J. Rawlings.
To him, Mr. Baah-Wiredu deserves not to be appointed a Minister if he cannot find any reason to question the sources of funds of his colleague Ministers who have allegedly bought eight houses within the seven-year rule of the NPP government at Ridge in Accra, and can talk about her husband’s. She particularly, named Dr. Akoto Osei, Minister of State designate for Finance and Economic Planning as a beneficiary, an allegation Dr. Akoto deflated as untrue but declined to give further comments.
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