Former President Jerry John Rawlings
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has stated that a minister who served in the erstwhile Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) bought two mansions worth $3 million from a property owner in Accra.
Mr. Rawlings, the NDC’s founder, said each building cost $1.5 million.
The former president said the minister, whom he called ‘small little character,’ was able to pay hard cash to the astonishment of the property owner after the NDC lost the 2016 general election.
Hard Cash
“What did this small little character do? After we lost the 2016, I said he went and paid cash for two mansions,” Rawlings fired at the 39th Anniversary of the June 4 Uprising held at the Madina Social Welfare Centre in Accra.
He said “one for himself and one for his wife and of course, the man who was selling the properties that he has built for sale should have been happy; isn’t it, because he was making profit.”
Sad Situation
However, Mr. Rawlings said that “he (property owner) was very sad and he was very angry. Why do you think he was angry? Because he has sweated to build these houses to sell for profit and instead of the money to come into his account or being given a cheque, he was being given physical cash!”
“What that meant was that he had to spend the whole night counting the $1.5 million each times two, the $3 million. Do you get me?”
The former President did not mention the name of the minister involved, but unconfirmed reports say it’s a very young deputy minister, who is noted for his acerbic tongue and use of intemperate language in the media against political opponents of the NDC.
DAILY GUIDE’s checks indicate that the said deputy minister was cited in the leaked Electoral Commission (EC) tape in which he was said to have pocketed $6 million meant for staff of the commission.
No Corruption
The former President revealed that “when I came out of office together with my wife, we never even had a foreign account to say we have even $10 in it.”
“Today when they are tabling all the billionaires and the millionaires that we have, they put Rawlings at number 9. I think, and they’ve given me $50 million I think,” he said amidst laughter.
“Meanwhile the last man behind me is Kofi Wayo. I don’t know, did they give him $30 million or what? They gave him $30 million or $3 million. As for Kofi Wayo, I know he is so broke that I believe he must have paid the newspaper to put me there and put $30 million against my name.”
Setting Records
“I have answered these kinds of things and I will answer it again. They play these games as a way of white washing themselves; the genuine thieves among them so that if Rawlings can have $50 million there is nothing wrong with it. If I had, I would have worked honestly for it. But I don’t. They have it, the thieves and the honest ones but they want to be acceptable, they want it to be normal, how did you come by it.”
By William Yaw Owusu