Mr. Rawlings, John Peter Amewu
THE OFFICE of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings has stated that there is no rapport whatsoever between the former president and the Volta Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Amewu, as the latter had indicated.
According to a statement issued and signed by Kobina Andoh Amoakwa from the Communications Directorate of the office of the former president, the claim by John Peter Amewu that there is rapport between himself and the former president is false and malicious.
“To make such untruthful and absurd claim of a follow-up telephone call which can easily be verified is foolhardy, imprudent, unbecoming of a political actor who is supposed to lead with integrity and absolutely disrespectful to former President Rawlings,” the statement pointed out.
It would be recalled that Mr. Amewu, in an interview with Joy News Television on December 15, 2016, had praised Mr. Rawlings for assisting the NPP emerge the winner of the December 7 polls, creating the impression of a good rapport between him and Mr. Rawlings.
“I want to say a big thank you to him (President Rawlings). Even on the night of elections when the results were coming in, he did call,” Mr. Amewu was quoted to have said during that interview.
The Volta Regional Chairman of the NPP had also pointed out that the former president and founder of the defeated National Democratic Congress (NDC) had contributed immensely to the low voter turnout in the region during the polls.
But in the statement to set the records straight, the office of Mr. Rawlings said emphatically, “For the records the former president has met and talked to Mr. Amewu only once in his lifetime.
“This encounter, which was at the full glare of the media, took place when he led the Volta Regional executives to pay a courtesy call on the former president after he was enstooled as the Nutsifafa Fiaga of the Anlo Traditional Area.”
The purpose of the visit, the statement stressed, was to lodge a complaint about the alleged attempts by non-Ghanaians across the Ghana-Togo border to vote in the just-ended Ghanaian presidential and parliamentary elections.”
“The office therefore, demands an apology and retraction of the said falsehood in the same manner and prominence such false claim was carried,” the statement charged.
BY Melvin Tarlue