JJ's Boy Sprayed With Cash

THE SEEMING rift between President John Evans Atta Mills and NDC founder Jerry John Rawlings over who among them carries weight in the ruling party now seems to be tilting in favour of the sitting president.

Credible reports reaching DAILY GUIDE in the Ashanti region indicate that a known Rawlings boy, Ofori Agyeman aka 'Zuba' was now in bed with President Mills's campaign team.

Zuba, DAILY GUIDE has reliably been told, has been offered the job producing of President Mills's re-election banners which would be unveiled on Tuesday to welcome the president to the Ashanti region, confirming Rawlings's fears that Mills was using money for the congress.

This shocking news would certainly tear the heart of former President Rawlings because Agyeman, until recent times, was a known ardent Rawlings fan who was defending the former first family on radio talk shows on daily bases.

DAILY GUIDE checks further revealed that the President John Mills's campaign banners being produced by Zuba would be hoisted at vantage points in Kumasi to welcome the president on Tuesday.

The banners are being printed at a publishing shop around the Baba Yara stadium area and it has been decorated with NDC colours at the width with President Mills's smiling portrait in the middle.

The banners, which DAILY GUIDE has laid hands on, have inscriptions like 'Get Atta Mills Elected 2012' boldly written at the top, and beneath it, it has this inscription in Twi 'Adwumapa Ntoasoo' to wit 'continuation of a good job.'

The banner also has an inscription which reads like 'Competence, Honesty and Good Work.'

Zuba's instant switch from former President Rawlings's camp to that of President Mills raises questions as to what was done by the latter's camp to woo him into their fold.

Former President Rawlings has in recent times complained bitterly about some elements in the NDC that are trying to use money to buy people to their side, a development which Mr. Rawlings said was destroying the party.

President Atta Mills begins his official tour of the Ashanti region on Tuesday and ends on Thursday.

On paper, the president would use the tour to inspect government projects so as to know, at first hand, what really needs to be done in earnest in the region.

But other political pundits have other opinions about the exact motive behind the president's tour of the region.

Some known NDC stalwarts, speaking on anonymity, thinks the president was using the trip to canvass for votes for his re-election as NDC flagbearer in the July congress of the party.

According to them, the president was trailing behind Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in the NDC flagbearer race so he wants to use the tour to canvass for more votes before congress.

And with the revelation of the mass production of President Mills's campaign banners, people have started asking questions about the president's exact purpose for the trip.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted Zuba about the Mills banner production at a publishing shop around the Baba Yara stadium area, he initially declined to make a comment.

When pressed further as to what influenced his decision to join the President Mills campaign team, the hitherto known Rawlings boy could not confirm or deny whether he had switched camps.

Zuba, DAILY GUIDE gathered, was in town when former President Rawlings addressed party faithful at the Salisburg Hotel recently but he did not show up at the meeting.

When asked why he failed to attend the Mr. Rawlings meeting, Zuba who sounded uncomfortable with the line of questioning, hanged up the phone.

The DAILY GUIDE reporter later tried to no avail to get him back on the line as the phone had been switched off.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi