Limann’s Pal Slams J.J
ALHAJI ABASS Mensah, a founding member of the erstwhile People’s National Party (PNP) has descended heavily on former President Jerry John Rawlings, accusing him of deepening the country’s woes with his military interventions.
He particularly slammed the former military leader for staging the June 4, 1979 bloody coup, which to him, was unnecessary “because it derailed the country from the path to glory and rather drew us back.
“The coup was the genesis of all the country’s problems; instead of bringing hope and life to the people as preached by J.J. and his cohorts, it rather brought deaths, untold hardships and wailings to the masses.
“So to me the June 4th uprising was needless and should be condemned to the last limit by the good people of Ghana, if indeed we want to move forward in prosperity.”
He stated that the country would have been better off now, had it not been for the coups staged by Mr. Rawlings and his cohorts, who he said did not have any knowledge about governance.
“Since the coup plotters were inexperienced they blindly led the country into a ditch and sadly that was the beginning of all the plight and calamities that has engulfed the country now.”
Speaking in a telephone interview with a Kumasi radio station from his London base last Wednesday, June 4, which was the 29th anniversary of the bloody coup, Alhaji Abass stated that Mr. Rawlings should bow his head in shame for failing the country.
Alhaji Abass, who was illegally removed from office by Mr. Rawlings in another coup d’etat staged on 31st December 1981, grieved about the atrocities Mr. Rawlings meted out to innocent Ghanaians.
He mentioned the illegal arrest of innocent people, thrashing of people in public places, especially women, abuse of human rights among others as the consequences of the June 4th Revolution.
He continued that former President Rawlings inhumanely put aside the constitution of the country and set up ‘Kangaroo Courts’ which criminally and hastily sentenced innocent people.
Alhaji Abass, who sounded furious, accused Mr. Rawlings of allegedly pilfering millions of cedis from the national coffers before handing over power to the democratically elected PNP government led by Dr. Hilla Limann in 1979.
“After arresting innocent wealthy people in the country over non-payment of taxes, Rawlings openly announced that he had bagged ¢900 million of the tax offenders and has deposited it in Account Number 48 for the country.
“But after heaping tons of praises on him for a good work done, to our shock, when the Limann government assumed the reins of power, instead of the ¢900 million a meager ¢23 million was found in the accounts.
“This is a man who had earlier on promised to bring back probity, accountability and honesty to a Ghanaian society which to him was corrupt and rotten and therefore needed change.”
Alhaji Abass did not spare the wife of Mr. Rawlings, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings either.
He seriously slammed the former First Lady for failing women in the country as “she advised her husband to strip women naked in public places amidst beatings.
“To me, Nana Konadu is not fit to advise Ghanaian women, because she contributed immensely in humiliating women in the country during the revolution,” he alleged.
Alhaji Abass thus cautioned Ghanaians never to revisit events like June 4th, insisting that the anniversary of the bloody coup did not deserve to be observed by Ghanaians, insisting that “it is not worth celebrating because it brought us nothing but untold hardships beyond measure.”
From Fred J.A. Ibrahim Jnr., K’si
Source: Daily Guide
