Zanetor Rawlings vs Selasse Djentuh: The Whole 'Truth' and Nothing But....

Readers' Notice: Contrary to claims by Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings in an interview with Bola Ray on "Starr Chat", broadcast on GhOne TV/Starr 103.5FM in June of this year, that the dispute with Selasse Djentuh was about a "land issue", writer Eugene Selorm Owusu revisited the actual saga and detailed the full story.

In the year 1996, a 19-year old Ghanaian citizen named Selasse O'Sullivan Djentuh drove to the private residence of the then President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Jerry John "J.J." Rawlings, to pick up his friend by name Selassie Kpanga, who had gone there to check up on Yaa Asantewaa Agyeman-Rawlings, the second daughter of the President. Selassie Kpanga and Yaa Asantewaa were an 'item' at the time.

On arrival at the President's humble abode, Selasse Djentuh reclined in one of the chairs in the lounge to wait for Selassie Kpanga. No sooner had he (Selasse Djentuh) sat down than he heard the sound of a piano emanating from a nearby room. So enchanting was the piano's sound that it awakened not just his ears and mind, but also penetrated his heart and soul.

Selasse followed the sweet strains of the piano, which led him to the room. As he stealthily entered, his eyes unexpectedly beheld a young angelic female figure, who looked to be the same age as him, on the grand piano pressing the keys playfully but masterfully with very much gusto.

The female who was displaying her dexterity on the musical instrument was none other than the 'almighty' Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, now Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings – the first child/daughter of the President and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.

Selasse had been hearing a lot about Zanetor, and had probably been burning with the desire to meet her, which may have been the reason why he agreed to go pick up his friend Selassie Kpanga at the President's house, hoping to bump into her. Therefore, one could just imagine the elation in his heart when he came into close contact with the President's adorable daughter, who was rarely seen in public in those days.

Zanetor reflexively noticed his presence in the room. After introducing himself and subsequently exchanging pleasantries with her, Selasse had a hearty conversation with the beautiful presidential princess from Dzelukope (in the Volta Region of Ghana), after which they both exchanged telephone contacts so as to stay in touch.

To say that Selasse and Selassie both left the President's house on cloud nine that fateful day is to state the obvious fact. After all, the day had turned out to be very blissful for the two young buddies.

Following that encounter, Zanetor and Selasse (Djentuh) constantly communicated via the telephone and occasionally met up for in-person interactions. In no time, they became totally smitten with each other. And soon, their respective parents got to know about the sizzling love affair.

But, as youngsters who were nearing adulthood and might decide to get hitched in the future to start a nuclear family, it was simply ‘mother wit’ (commonsense) for this promising romantic alliance not to be placed asunder.

To the delight of Zanetor and Selasse, their parents did not object to the relationship. As a matter of fact, the young lovebirds were given carte blanche to explore themselves thoroughly. An exploration that led to the discovery of a burning "flame of love" between the two. This marked the beginning of the legendary romance between Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings and Selasse O'Sullivan Djentuh.

It cannot be gainsaid that Zanetor was an embodiment of natural beauty. And because of her privileged status as the "first child” of Ghana, she was the cynosure of all eyes with lots of secret male admirers who had been dating her, but only in their wildest dreams. Hence, Selasse now being the actual man in her life made all those other male admirers green with envy.

It ought to be stated unequivocally that Selasse was not an ‘ordinary’ Ghanaian guy. He was somewhat as privileged and comfortable in life as his dear Zanetor. His father, Anthony Kofi Mensah Djentuh, was a senior civil servant in Ghana. And his mother, Maria O'Sullivan-Djentuh, on the other hand, was a self-made wealthy businesswoman who owned blue-chip companies like the real estate firm Mariville Homes Estate (or simply Mariville).

Selasse's mixed-race mother Maria, who partly hailed from Ireland (north-western Europe), was among the first crop of Ghanaian businesswomen who boldly ventured into the property development business in Ghana in the 1990s. Together with Ghanaian female entrepreneurs like Theresa Oppong Beeko (Founder/CEO – Manet Housing Limited) and Regina Botchwey (Co-Founder of Regimanuel Gray Limited), they challenged that business sector as a male bastion.

And so, Selasse had a mother who was fabulously rich and this enabled him to live a life of affluence. Even as a young man who was just starting adult life, the lad had a pricey car, as well as a high-powered motorbike. He was like the real-life version of the Crown Prince of Zamunda.

As typical of youngsters experiencing romantic love for the first time, Zanetor and Selasse became very close and inseparable like Siamese twins. Like their parents, they were upbeat about their future and sure that the relationship would lead to marriage in the near future. Accordingly, they exchanged promise rings to affirm the passionate love they had for each other.

Marriage seemed to be the only and final destination for the journey of love that Zanetor and Selasse had decided to embark on. People who were close to their parents and knew about the relationship started lobbying and preparing to get invited for their high society wedding, which was anticipated to be the talk of the town.

Due to security reasons, Zanetor and her young siblings had been living a very 'reclusive' and 'regimented' life. Their parents were choosy about where they went, likewise the kind of folks they came into contact with. In view of this, it was quite liberating for young Zanetor to have now been allowed to roam about freely with Selasse, albeit not without heavily-armed security guards always in tow.

The palatial home of Selasse's parents literally became her playground, where she spent long hours with her young handsome beau (Selasse). Her combat-ready security guards were never out of sight. These brawny bodyguards always pranced around and kept an eagle-eye on the compound, while being fed sumptuous meals from Selasse's mother's pot, considering the long hours they spent there.

President J.J. Rawlings and his wife unsurprisingly treated Selasse with tender loving care, as though he was one of their offspring. They extended such genuine human warmth and goodwill to his parents and siblings. Through his unfettered access to the President's private home, the young chap became a quasi-member of the Rawlings family.

Selasse, from time to time, attended state events with the Rawlingses, and sometimes tagged along with them to the presidential villa at Akuse (near Shai Hills in the Greater-Accra Region) for a holiday or weekend retreat. Beyond that, he would join the President, who was once a topflight pilot in the Ghana Air Force, and his presidential entourage on flying excursions around the country in a helicopter or jet.

It was really exhilarating for young Selasse getting to know the country's "first family" (the Rawlingses), as well as being granted the rare privilege to be in their exclusive inner circle.

Education Abroad
In 1997, Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings and Selasse O'Sullivan Djentuh gained admission to attend university in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK) respectively.

In spite of the fact that they were not going to be in the same varsity (university), city or country, this came to them as gratifying news owing to the fact that the aforementioned European nations were within arm's length, separated by the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel. For that reason, they were not going to be far away from each other.

On touching down in London (the capital city of England and the UK) in September 1997, Selasse was introduced to the then Ghana High Commissioner to the UK, James E.K. Aggrey-Orleans, who was concurrently accredited to the Republic of Ireland as a non-resident Ghanaian Ambassador. He (Selasse) was told to always call on the distinguished Ghanaian diplomat whenever he needed help or assistance throughout his sojourn in the UK.

While Selasse remained in London to study Business at the American InterContinental University’s UK campus (a campus later acquired by Regent's University London in April 2013), Zanetor had to continue her journey to Dublin (the capital city of Ireland), where she successfully enrolled at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), otherwise known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, to begin her first degree in Medicine.

In order to keep their flame of love burning, they made it a relationship ritual to frequently hang out in London and spend quality time together. The UK thereby became like a "hideaway" for the duo as being in Ghana had felt for them like living in the Big Brother house. With the endless prying eyes of the ever-nosey Ghanaian public always watching them 24/7 like Big Brother cameras, there had been absolutely no place for Zanetor and Selasse to 'hide' in Ghana, just as it is the case in the Big Brother TV show house.

After many months of academic work, punctuated by intermittent breaks with some rollicking fun (and perhaps "tatatatatata...."), Zanetor and Selasse both returned to the Big Brother house (Ghana, to be precise) in mid-1998 to spend time with their kith and kin as they had been away for almost a year.

However, before they would go back to school in that same year (1998), the once promising "relation-ship" was no longer going well. Unfortunately, the "-ship" had begun to sink.

According to grapevine reports, Selasse had found out that his sweetheart had been two-timing him with another guy in Ghana, a situation that was unsettling him and gradually putting a strain on the relationship. After weeks of misunderstanding over the alleged affair, they both reached some understanding and somehow reignited the flame in their relationship.

But disaffection still outweighed affection and as a result, the relationship was still shaky. After a while, Selasse returned the promise ring. The relationship, consequently, collapsed in bitter acrimony.

Beginning of Selasse's Woes

Having jilted and severed all ties with his "old flame" (Zanetor), Selasse quickly moved on with his youthful life as if nothing had happened.

On the morning of Friday, 5th November, 1999 when the hunky young man got up from bed and set off from his parents' home on his motorbike heading for the gymnasium, he had no idea of what was coming his way on that day.

Upon reaching a T-junction at Sakumono Estate en route to the gym, a truck suddenly ran into him, knocking him off his bike and injuring him severely in the process. The driver of the truck, according to eye witness accounts, instantaneously sped off out of sight without a trace.

As he writhed in pain on the ground, a good Samaritan, who had witnessed the whole accident, came to his rescue. The good Samaritan was able to enlist the help of some passers-by and they rushed Selasse to the Christian Medical Centre at Nungua (a suburb of Accra). This good Samaritan also managed to contact a good friend of Selasse who relayed the unfortunate news to his parents.

Immediately after locating her son, Maria (Selasse's mother), who was bent on knowing the identity of the truck driver, went to the police to report the accident in order for the driver to be tracked down and brought to book. But to her dismay, she was told by the police that an "order from above" had sternly ordered them not to investigate Selasse's accident. In addition to that, she was warned by the police not to pursue the case, for her own safety and that of her family.

Maria's usual pretty face, at this moment, was a mask of shock and anger. It suddenly dawned on her that it may not have been a mere road accident as she had thought. Apparently, it was an attempt on Selasse's life by some unknown "enemies".

She became alarmed and suspicious. Without wasting time, she moved Selasse (who had sustained severe internal injuries, a fractured neck and a dislocated shoulder) from the private health facility at Nungua to their private home, and painstakingly nursed him personally for several weeks to regain his optimal health.

The said truck, with registration number GR 3413 N, was later miraculously traced. It was revealed that Dominic Azimbe Azumah – the then Member of Parliament (MP) for Garu-Tempane Constituency (now separately known as "Garu Constituency" and "Tempane Constituency") in the Upper-East Region – was the owner of the vehicle.

In a press conference in Accra, Mr Azumah (a member of President Rawlings' ruling party) strenuously denied claims that the accident was a plot to kill Selasse. The Ghanaian lawmaker told the media he was deeply sad and disturbed that what was a normal road accident had all of a sudden taken a political dimension.

Surprisingly, but not too surprisingly, on 5th March, 2000, a few months after the accident, Selasse was charged with a motoring offence in connection with the motor accident and fined by a circuit court. But the driver of the truck that ran him over was still not being pursued by the police, much to the chagrin of the Djentuh family.

But prior to that charge against Selasse vis-à-vis the motor accident, a shocking event had transpired earlier that year.

On January 15, 2000, when Selasse took one of his friends, who was on a visit from London, to go see his mother's new estate buildings at East Airport in Accra, they met two strange vans parked at the site with soldiers seated in them. In one of the two vans were two employees from Selasse's mother's real estate company, who had obviously been captured by the soldiers.

Wanting very much to know what was going on, Selasse drew closer to one of the vans to make enquiries. A fierce scuffle unexpectedly ensued after he (Selasse) was ordered by the soldiers to join the van but defiantly refused to comply. Alas, the soldiers outnumbered and overpowered him. He was bundled up and forcibly thrown into one of the two waiting vans and then whisked away to the Osu Castle – the seat of the Government of Ghana at the time.

It did not take long before the news got to Selasse's parents that their dear son and two site workers had been abducted by members of the presidential guard, which was made up of elite commandos from 64 Regiment, also known as Battalion 64, the Cuba-Ghana-trained special troops responsible for the security of President Rawlings. It was after learning about this abduction that Maria had a clear idea who the "enemies" truly were.

It is worth mentioning that Maria was a fierce mother who protected her children with the same ferocity that a lioness would guard its cubs. She simply did not take it lightly with anyone (no matter their social standing) who dared mess with her beloved kids.

During Selasse's short stint in Mawuli Senior Secondary School (now Mawuli Senior High School) as a student, she was said to have stormed the school's campus in Ho (the capital town of the Volta Region) one time to 'shake' the foundations of the school following a disagreement between her son and the school's authorities. So clearly, Maria was a no-nonsense mother.

With absolutely no fears and inhibitions, Maria and her husband Anthony Djentuh (Selasse's father) dashed straight to the lion's den – the Osu Castle – to demand for the immediate release of their son and the two innocent Ghanaian employees. Despite the strong resistance they faced at the entry point, Selasse's dauntless parents were able to shove their way through to the precinct of the ever imposing Osu Castle.

All attempts to get the trio released to them proved futile. Owing to the scene Maria was making (she had allegedly sat on the ground, wailing, shouting and 'swearing') at the Castle, which was a high security zone, one of the guards on duty named Lance Corporal (LCpl) Stephen Tamakloe, who was obviously annoyed by her 'disorderly' conduct, reportedly moved towards her threateningly and lifted his hand to smack her.

But for the timely intervention of Anthony Djentuh, the security guard's hefty hand would have landed on Maria's broad face violently. For blocking LCpl Tamakloe's hand, which was regarded as an affront, Anthony Djentuh was roughed up by the other guards and later detained at the Castle.

Eventually, Anthony Djentuh and his son Selasse, as well as the two employees of Maria were released without charge.

A section of the Ghanaian public argued that if not for the media and public attention their abduction had attracted, which was Maria's handiwork, Selasse and his father Anthony (together with Maria's two workers) would have disappeared forever.

There was so much pressure from the general public on the seat of Government to release them, and they had no other option but to budge on the issue. Suffice it to add that the pressure was getting "worser" (as they say in local Ghanaian English parlance).

Before his arrest and detainment, Anthony Djentuh and his wife Maria had earlier gone to the Airport Police Station to lodge a report with regards to the abduction of the trio (Selasse and the two employees), and were directed by the police to go to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to make a public announcement, which they did.

There had been reports of unlawful abductions, detentions and assaults under the Rawlings government. And there had also been a myriad of allegations of some detainees mysteriously vanishing and never seen again by their friends and family. These occurrences, according to the anti-Rawlingses, had always been the characteristics of the regime.

Once again, the sad story about the abduction and gruesome murder of the three high court judges (Justices Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong) and Major (Retired) Sam Acquah in 1982 during the Rawlings military junta was resurrected to buttress these claims.

As the captives had been released from captivity, one would have expected this would mark the end of all the troubles in the lives of the Djentuh family for peace to prevail onward. It turned out, however, that all the previous events were actually a foretaste of a string of nightmares awaiting the Djentuhs.

In April, 2000, some estate houses belonging to Maria Djentuh at East Airport were bulldozed to the ground by some armed police men. In a twinkle of an eye, the entire tract of the estate land, which hitherto had thirty-five (35) yet-to-be-completed detached residential buildings, was flattened like an airport runway.

When the police were later challenged, they produced a court order relating to the demolition of a property on a different piece of land at a different location in Accra.

Maria was never compensated for her colossal losses. But as stoic as she had always been in the face of adversity, she dusted herself off and went back to her piece of land at East Airport to build an upscale gated estate, probably to spite the "enemies".

Exile in the UK

Considering the shocking turn of events and the safety of their children, especially Selasse, Mr and Mrs Djentuh thought it wise to send an application to the UK Home Office, via the UK High Commission in Ghana, to seek for political asylum in the UK for their children.

Once that asylum application was granted by the British authorities, Maria and her children, including Selasse (who was by then 23 years old) rushed out of Ghana like the "devil" was at their heels.

It is important to note that Selasse Djentuh and his siblings were not immediately put through school on arrival in the UK. They were holed up in a private house at a secluded location in London, undergoing homeschooling and private studies as their parents feared the "enemies" could trace them there and finish off Selasse.

Now out of the Rawlingses' den (Ghana), Selasse felt the need to bare it all to the British media for public consumption. This generated a lot of attention, and with a lot of attention came a lot of rumours and gossip.

In a tell-all interview with Fran Abrams shortly after his arrival in exile, Selasse divulged to the London-based journalist that he got to know through people close to his presidential girlfriend that she had been secretly seeing her flying instructor, but when he confronted her she vehemently denied it.

"Sometimes she couldn't account for where she had been, and she would try to pick a fight when I asked. I started wondering....", Selasse was quoted as saying in the Monday, 4th September, 2000 edition of the UK's Independent newspaper, which was widely circulated across the UK and beyond.

It is an open secret that President Rawlings, during his tenure of office, was using the state aircrafts at the Ghana Air Force base in Accra to train his first daughter as a pilot – a move his political opponents and many of his detractors decried and described as untoward and sheer "abuse of power".

And according to Selasse, whenever the President was unavailable, there was a flight instructor who deputised for him. This flight instructor, as revealed by Selasse to the British media, was the one his presidential girlfriend was in the hush-hush relationship with.

The young Ghanaian bloke also touched on his three-day incarceration at the Osu Castle, where he was held up in a dark and overcrowded cell, repeatedly beaten mercilessly and also witnessed the torture of other detainees. Coupled with this, he mentioned that he was made to sleep on the bare floor inside the insanitary cell.

As if he was suffering from a verbal diarrhoea, Selasse went on to disclose to the UK media how the soldiers pryingly quizzed him on whether it was true that he had indeed deflowered the president's first daughter, and how many times he slept with her and blah blah blah.

He did not forget to also talk about his interrogation on what he knew about the presidential family's assets and properties, as well as how he was forcibly shaved with old rusty razor blades and broken glass bottle among other inhuman acts meted out to him by the conscienceless and heartless soldiers.

"I was told the president had asked them to bring my hair to him. They said I would be killed and thrown in the sea and I really believed that was going to happen. I was beaten to a pulp. It was like a war movie", he recounted.

Later, when President Rawlings’ wife Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was asked about Selasse's "haircut" claim in an interview on Accra-based JOY 99.7 FM with Komla Afeke Dumor (who later left JOY for the BBC in London), she replied jocularly: "It was just an identification haircut".

The term "identification haircut", after that radio interview, became a popular Ghanaian jargon bandied about by the Ghanaian populace, especially the pro-Rawlingses. There was so much euphoria around the term in those days that some individuals, in their quest to make fun of Selasse's hellish experience at the Castle, would go to barbershops to jokingly ask for an "identification haircut".

Selasse Djentuh's shocking revelations to the press in London became media fodder for juicy stories and gossip news in mainstream media and tabloids not only in the UK and Ghana, but elsewhere in the world including non-English speaking countries.

More Matters Arising in Ghana/Involvement of Amnesty International

With Selasse and his siblings safely tucked away in London, Maria decided to return to Ghana in order to attend to her husband Anthony, who had been indisposed as a result of how he was manhandled by the soldiers during his 24-hour detention at the Osu Castle.

Hardly had Maria arrived in Ghana when she and her husband were arrested by the police and summarily sent to gaol (jail), awaiting final sentencing.

Mr and Mrs Djentuh were charged with "assault of public officer", "deceit of public officer" and "offensive conduct". The three charges were all in connection with their attempts to get their son Selasse (and the two workers from Maria's company) released from cell at the Osu Castle.

At this point, the news about the unending ordeals of the Djentuh family had spread across the world. It had also gotten to the corridors of Amnesty International, an international human rights organisation headquartered in London, UK.

In a four-page public statement titled "Ghana: Detention and Abduction with Impunity", issued on Friday, 25th August, 2000 from its press office in London, Amnesty International unreservedly condemned the arrest of the Djentuh couple. The organisation strongly believed that they were probably "prisoners of conscience" who were being held up because they spoke out publicly in defence of the human rights of their son.

"It is widely believed that a series of attacks on the family, both physical and in the government-controlled news media, are connected to a former relationship between Selasse and a daughter of President Rawlings....", the statement partly read.

At the preliminary hearing, adjudicated by Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yebuah, no evidence was adduced in court that Mr and Mrs Djentuh had deceived a public officer by reporting the abduction of their son and the two others. On that account, the "deceit of public officer" charge was struck out of the three charges, remaining two – "assault of public officer" and "offensive conduct".

During the trial, the presidential guards who were on duty on the day of the incident at the Osu Castle all testified in court that Anthony Djentuh assaulted Lance Corporal (LCpl) Stephen Tamakloe, and not what had been reported earlier that the former (Anthony Djentuh) blocked LCpl Tamakloe's hand when the latter attempted to slap his wife (Maria) during the altercation at the Castle.

The witnesses (the presidential guards) also told the court that Maria had rained a torrent of insults on them, and additionally made disparaging remarks like: "I will bring you and your foolish President to book", "I will set the Castle on fire" and "You and your leader will come back on the street".

The court afterwards ruled that evidence about the alleged abduction of Selasse Djentuh had no bearing on the case, and that it was the 'misconduct' of Mr and Mrs Djentuh that resulted in them not being properly treated at the Castle.

In the court's final judgement, Mrs Anderson-Yebuah, the presiding judge, submitted in court that the Djentuh couple's march to the seat of Government to look for their abducted child (Selasse) was wrong and showed total disrespect and contempt of what the Osu Castle stood for. The accused (Mr and Mrs Djentuh), she said, should have taken their case to the appropriate quarters since the Castle was not a public place and their action could have breached its peace.

Amid widespread agitations and protests in Ghana and some other parts of the world, Anthony Kofi Mensah Djentuh and Maria O'sullivan-Djentuh were given suspended sentences (which are served outside prison). The court "bonded" them to be of good behaviour or risk re-imprisonment.

Following that, the beleaguered couple were released from the notorious James Fort Prison, after spending two weeks on remand therein – a prison facility Maria described in a media interview as a veritable hell and "not even suitable for pigs".

Concerns had been expressed about the impartiality of the judiciary in this particular case involving the Djentuhs, as was the case in other political cases handled by the court in the past under the Rawlings regime, where the judiciary appeared to have been subjected to improper pressure and control by the ruling government.

Keeping a squeaky clean public image had always been of very much concern to the Djentuh family. And it is for this reason that Mr and Mrs Djentuh quickly appealed their conviction. Going back to court did not in any way bother the couple as going to court had become like their "profession".

In the end, the sentence was quashed by an Accra Regional Tribunal. The Tribunal's chairman, Justice Isaac Duose, in delivering the final verdict described the earlier judgement as bogus and flawed. He averred that the case lacked merit and thus overturned the conviction of Mr. and Mrs. Djentuh.

Speaking to journalists after the court proceeding, Maria O'Sullivan Djentuh emotionally remarked: "Our God is faithful, who delivers the righteous from the pit of the wicked. We treated the children of the Rawlingses with love and affection but they paid us back with wickedness”, as quoted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

A busload of the Djentuh family and friends had been bused from their hometown, Kpando (in the Volta Region), to Accra earlier in the day to show solidarity. And after all had been said and done, there was wild jubilation amidst a mini "borborbor" music session at the forecourt of the court, which culminated in an all-night jamboree at the private residence of the Djentuhs.

Run-up to December 2000 Election

Although the 1992 Constitution of Ghana had precluded President Rawlings from contesting in the forthcoming general election, slated for 7th December, 2000, a "win" for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), which he foundered in 1992 (having transitioned from a military ruler to a civilian leader, following his 11-year military rule), was viewed as an indirect extension of his 20-year rule.

This is because the NDC's presidential candidate, Professor John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills (the Vice President) was thought of by the opposition as a political puppet who was slavishly loyal to the Rawlingses.

And if that being the case, President Rawlings would continue to hold sway and wield absolute authority in the country even after leaving political office. This would invariably spell doom for the Djentuhs, as had been asserted by some political commentators and analysts.

Rumours had it at the time that His Excellency Ian Mackley (the UK High Commissioner to Ghana), who had been keenly following all the drama, had joined forces with some foreign diplomats in Ghana to clandestinely galvanise support for John Kofi Diawuo Agyekum Kufuor (Esq.) of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the run-up to the election in December, 2000.

Perhaps fully aware of what his victory in the election would mean for the Djentuh family, Mr Kufuor, who had previously lost to President Rawlings in the 1996 General Election, came out all guns blazing and with all his might to canvass for votes under the campaign slogan "Positive Change" – a positive change in the lives of all Ghanaians (including the Djentuhs? Maybe, and just maybe!).

Fortunately for the Djentuhs, but unfortunately for the Rawlingses, Kufuor was able to wrest power from the NDC government after that fiercely-contested election. The election of John Agyekum Kufour (JAK), expectedly, gave the Djentuh family a new lease of life and also heralded the dawn of a new beginning for the Republic of Ghana – having been under Rawlings for 20 years. It was a watershed in Ghanaian politics.

The NDC's loss in the December 2000 election was largely attributed to the fracas between the two feuding families (the Rawlingses and the Djentuhs), likewise the defeat of the incumbent NDC MP for Garu-Tempane Constituency – Dominic Azimbe Azumah – whose vehicle was the truck that knocked down Selasse Djentuh. (Mr Azumah regained that parliamentary seat for the NDC in the 2004 election, and was reelected in the 2008 and 2012 elections, before losing it again in 2016 and subsequently sacked from the NDC for 'misconduct').

Some members of the newly-elected NPP, led by Dan Botwe (the then General Secretary of the party), mocked the NDC for losing the election despite their founder (President Rawlings) allegedly using "blood" to autograph a copy of the NDC manifesto (an act deemed to be supernatural and eerie), a damning news report published by the Accra Daily Mail newspaper prior to the December 2000 election.

A couple of months after the successful swearing-in of President Kufour as the new president of Ghana on January 7, 2001, many were those who held the view that ex-President Rawlings (now an "ex-") would have staged another coup d'etat, like the 31st December 1981 coup, if he had the power to do so.

But after formally handing over the political baton to President Kufuor, affectionately called "The Gentle JAK", who according to insiders had a strong backing from "foreign powers" (which purportedly stemmed partly from "sympathy" for the Djentuhs), ex-President Rawlings at that stage of his life had become as 'powerless' as a caged lion, much to the relief and excitement of the Djentuh family and their friends, allies and sympathisers.

Since that time, the Rawlingses and the Djentuhs have remained sworn arch-enemies.

Fearing what happened to President Hilla Limann in 1981 could befall him too, President Kufuor, upon assuming office, disbanded 64 Regiment (Battalion 64), the commandos behind the abduction and assault of Selasse Djentuh and co.

Despite assurances and pledges from Lieutenant Colonel Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (the Commanding Officer) that the commando unit would be loyal and subordinate to his government, President Kufuor still went ahead to integrate these perceived Rawlings loyalists into the regular army of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) with clearly defined military roles.

The 64 Regiment (Battalion 64), originally called Forces Reserve Unit (FRU) and later Forces Reserve Battalion (FRB), was a special army created by the then "Chairman Rawlings" in the 1980s to protect his military regime.

The number "64" is in reference to the June 4, 1979 military uprising which saw J.J. Rawlings rose to power to become the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). The "6" represents the 6th month (June); the "4" stands for the 4th day in June, 1979. And thus, the commando force was also nicknamed "June Fourth Battalion” or "The Rawlings Commandos".

The defeated NDC MP, Dominic Azimbe Azumah and "The Rawlings Commandos" were not the only actors involved in the Zanetor-Selasse real-life drama series to have suffered some setbacks after the change of government in the wake of the 7th December, 2000 General Election.

In August, 2002, about a year and a half into the Kufuor-led NPP administration, Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yebuah, the judge who convicted Mr and Mrs Djentuh, a conviction that later tumbled on appeal, was reported to have been sacked from the Judicial Service of Ghana by the Ghana Legal Council (the supreme body of the Bar and the Bench in Ghana) on charges of travesty of justice (incompetence), bribe-taking and corruption.

Most of the people who were sent to gaol by the dismissed judge were later acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence.

Her dismissal followed a report by a four-member committee of inquiry set up to investigate numerous petitions filed against her by lawyers, litigants and the general public in response to the new Chief Justice Edward Kwame Wiredu's invitation to the Ghanaian public to report allegations of corruption by judicial officers.

The grapevine had it that, among the members of the Ghana Legal Council who voted overwhelmingly in favour of Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yebuah's dismissal was the then Attorney General cum Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo – the current President of the Republic of Ghana.

Reading through the narrative, one is tempted to believe that world-renowned Jamaican music duo Brick & Lace might have had the aftermath of Zanetor and Selasse break-up in mind when they recorded their 2007 hit song "Love is Wicked".

Infact, if this whole saga was a script for a stage play, a feature movie or a television drama series, it probably would have been titled "Love is Wicked Indeed"!

Written by Eugene Selorm Owusu
eugeneselorm@gmail.com

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