John Agyekum Kufuor proposing a toast with Allotey Jacobs
Former Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who is currently out of the party and says he is a Social Commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has finally met former President John Agyekum Kufuor and apologised profusely to him for the wicked lies spread about him when he was leading the country between January 2001 and January 2009.
The former President welcomed Allotey Jacobs and his team to his Peduase residence near Aburi in the Eastern Region on Wednesday, and had a long chat over national issues after which Mr. Kufuor said he holds no grudges against the Educated Fisherman, as he is known in political circles.
Allotey Jacobs spilled the beans recently when he said on radio that the NDC, then in opposition, plotted and planted a story that then sitting President Kufuor collected $5million as bribe in Kuwait.
He had said the NDC did it just to tarnish Kufuor’s image and get the public to vote against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 general election where Mr. Kufuor was exiting power and the current President, Nana Akufo-Addo, was contesting for the first time.
The NDC’s continuous lies and propaganda against the NPP brought the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills to power in early 2009 after winning the 2008 presidential election, following an unprecedented third round of contest.
At that time, it was the current Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who was then Minority Leader, then former President Rawlings’ spokesperson Victor Smith and Allotey Jacobs who was the NDC’s Central Regional Propaganda Secretary, who later became the party’s Regional Chairman, spearheaded the false bribe story against President Kufuor.
On His Knees
Following the meeting, Allotey Jacobs narrated on Wednesday that “I’m so happy in my heart. I’m so happy in my soul that at long last someone whose name I destroyed with others has forgiven me. He told me there was no need for me to beg but I told him, if you forgive me, Heaven will forgive me so accept that I wronged you.”
According to him, “Mr. Kufuor, still insisted that I did what I did due to the nature of our politics, so there was no need for me to beg him. But he later said that he believed I did it because of propaganda, and if I have come back to apologise, then he has forgiven me. He told me God has forgiven me and that he has nothing to add, but I told him to say something so that my soul will rest then he said ‘you are forgiven’!”
He added that “this meeting is a dream come true because I have been longing to beg Kufuor for years. I am so happy at long last, someone I destroyed has forgiven me. President Kufuor, you have shown your desire to help humanity. Thank you!”
Pictures emerging from the former President’s residence showed that Allotey Jacobs was even accorded the head of the table status at the meeting.
Mr. Kufuor then treated Allotey and his team to nice local cuisine to cement their friendship.
Remorseful Allotey
Allotey Jacobs before the meeting had said that he regretted his actions and wanted President Kufuor to forgive him.
“It is true that we told a lot of lies about Kufuor to win power. The NDC then being the largest opposition party, our aim was to come to power so it took us to deploy a lot of propaganda, blackmailing, character assassination, undermining of individuals and leaders of our opponents to make sure we came to power,” he said, adding “That is the problem we have in our current political dispensation.”
He said “in 2008, we took a story about Ghana indebted to Kuwait for oil supplied us and we used it to our advantage. We started some kind of propaganda through publications to bring in the then President JA Kufuor. We said Mr. Kufuor went to take oil from Kuwait and pocketed the money. It was all lies. We wanted power and had to lie.”
Pope Scenario
Allotey Jacobs said, “I have made a confession to God but I intentionally used the Pope scenario. What goes round comes around. When you do such wicked things you also suffer similar fate.”
“The best thing for me is to tell Ghanaians that what we said about President Kufuor was never true and not at all true. We fabricated the stories and made news about it and some of us deliberately held press conferences to condemn President Kufuor,” he said, adding “We took note of the fact that in our constitution the President cannot sue or be sued so when you bring out such a story nobody can do anything about it.”
He said “they even threatened to go to court on the issue but we knew it was not possible so we had a free range to fire propaganda missiles.”
Allotey Jacobs said that “Ghana has come a very long way in our political dispensation that these kinds of propaganda, blackmailing, and character assassination do not bring development so there is the need for us to stop.”
Akufo-Addo & Bawumia
He had also said that “I am looking at President Akufo-Addo, what is being done to him currently and Vice President Dr. Bawumia, what is being done to him. These are all vile propaganda. I’m a great CPP man in the NDC. We have been trained how to do propaganda and make sure our message permeates the system.”
He added, “Whether true or not, you have to convince the people to be part of you. It is always heightened especially when it is getting close to general elections; that is when we see all these machinations,” adding “For instance, we said President Kufuor and his ministers have used all the money at Prudential Bank. It was never true.”
“I came out boldly to make the Kufuor story look as if it was true and I am now saying that I have regretted because it was never true. We did that deliberately to gain political advantage and win power. I will seek audience with President Kufuor and apologise profusely to him for the wicked lies I told about him,” Allotey Jacobs stated in an earlier interview.
When asked if he was confessing because he had left the NDC, Allotey Jacobs said that “every issue has its own time for discussion. There is nothing that is hidden under this earth that will not be exposed,” adding “The type of politics we are doing in this country is dangerous. We are destroying people’s reputations and it is boomeranging on us.”
By Daniel Bampoe