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| Adabuga calls Rawlings a coward |
12/24/2008 |
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Ex-Cpl Mathew Adabuga, one of the key architects of the 31st December, 1981 military junta that truncated the Third Republic, has described former president Jerry John Rawlings as a coward and ethnocentric person, who is responsible for the tribal polarization in the army.
He also revealed that the leader of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was responsible for the murder of the three High Court Judges and Retired Army Officer in June 1982.Speaking at a pre-launch ceremony of his book, Rawlings-Murder and Lies, in Accra yesterday, the ex-corporal said going by the character of Rawlings, there is every indication that Professor John Evans Atta Mills, NDC presidential candidate, should he become the next president, would be replaced by his boss.
“The NDC is saying the Professor John Atta Mills can rule this country without interference and intimidation from Jerry Rawlings. This is not possible, given the true nature of Rawlings. Anyone who reads my book and the facts presented in it will come to this conclusion. Rawlings is not a man who shares power,” he said. According to him, the former president did not only mislead him in organizing the coup that overthrew President Hilla Liman, but also survived on tribalism all his life, both in the army and in his political life by whipping up the sentiments of people he met.
He said after he had lied to him and a number of soldiers from the northern part of the country that Liman needed them to save his administration by organizing a cosmetic coup, Rawlings had demonstrated that he does not have what it takes to heal the country. “Rawlings’ use of tribalism against his opponents is legendary. In the 1980s, he worked the Ewes against the Ashantis. He accused the Ashantis of having hijacked the whole of Ghana, while the NDC, which is controlled by Rawlings, has based its whole Volta campaign on anti-Akan sentiments, and being fanned by the party and Rawlings himself.
In the Central region of Ghana, the Rawlings-controlled NDC has based its message on tribal sentiments by asking voters to vote for Mills because he is a Fante”. The statement continues to that “In the Eastern region, the NDC propaganda machinery is working up by setting Ashantis against the Akyems, while in the North the NDC message is that the Ashantis look down on northerners”. On the killing of the judges, the former PNDC insider traced it to the first family and the then security capo, Mr. Kojo Tsikata.
He attributed the murder to what he called the thirst for power and vengeance. “The hunger for power and vengeance is the real reason for the brutal murder of the three High Court Judges and retired Army Major. It is a fact that Rawlings, his wife and Kojo Tsikata were the planners of the brutal crime. The same old tactic of setting one tribe against the other was used when he dressed the murders up in northern smocks for the operation”. Describing his survival as simply by the Grace of God, Adabuga asked the youth to be wary of the former president, saying they stand the danger of being misled by him just as he did to many of his contemporaries.
He challenged the ex-president to come out and face him before any TV camera if he wished.“If Rawlings is a man, he must come out and face me before the people of Ghana. I have the fact and the truth. All he has are lies, deceit and murder. I know that God has preserved my life so that I can tell this story to the people of Ghana at the right time.
Adabuga recalled the 31st December Revolution, which he said was code-named Operation Fadama, and revealed that for a better part of the coup, Rawlings was placed under arrest by him because he (Rawlings) displayed cowardice.
The 146-page book recounted the atrocities of the PNDC regime and how other soldiers, including Sgt. Alolga Akatapore and Cpl. Jones Ofori, at different point told the PNDC leader his role in the murder of the judges. The author (Adabuga) also confessed of how he was made to massacre several people during the Peki-Tsito land dispute. He repeated the apology he gave at the National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) and wondered why people who were involved in the atrocities were still not coming out to say what they knew of the matter.
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