Former President Jerry John Rawlings says the recent rebellion by some youth of the ruling party is the offshoot of certain “corrupt legacies” left behind by the erstwhile Kufuor administrations.
Mr Rawlings said “people are getting tired and exasperated and frustrated with the fact that the corrupt machinery that Kufuor created seems to still be intact and misbehaving.”
The former president was however quick to add that such reported disturbances must be given critical attention.
He suggested the Mills-led government is failing to swiftly tackle corruption institutions built by the previous administration head-on.
“May be some of these things are as a result of the manner we are tackling some of the negative things we have inherited,” he said.
Mr Rawlings spoke to Joy News’ Seth Kwame Boateng in a wide-ranging interview after addressing a group of Ghanaian and Nigerian youth at his Ridge residence.
Leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have attracted criticism for the poor conduct of youth of the party around the country.
Asked if the behaviour of such irate youth was right, former president Rawlings said one has to “be in their shoes to be able to answer that one.”
“I am not in their shoes okay? They are probably living with the corrupt legacies of the past. I don’t know what is happening,” he stated.
Mr Rawlings insisted citizens have the right to arrest if they suspect something is going wrong.
“A citizen has the power and the right to arrest somebody who is doing something wrong and let us hope or let us presume that something was going wrong and they were trying to contain or to prevent it,” he told Joy News Seth Kwame Boateng.
He dismissed notions that supporters of the party are riotous stressing “I don’t think our people are indisciplined to want to do something riotous or to be destructive. I don’t think so.”
Mr Rawlings urged supporters of the party to be law abiding “keeping in mind that the law must defend justice but the law must not be used to undermine justice.
Ghana@50 probe
Former President Rawlings said although the probe of the balance sheet of the Ghana@50 Secretariat is in the right direction, it is the least of issues to look at under the Kufuor regime.
“There are worse crimes that have been committed in the road sector; various projects in this country that run into several millions,” he said.
Mr Rawlings also repeated calls for investigations into the killings of the late overlord of Dagbon, Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani, and Alhaji Mobila, a member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) who is said to have been in military custody.
He said several other committees could have been set up to investigate such issues to bring the perpetrators to book.
Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
2 comments:
Did Rawlings say the corrupt machinery created by Kuffour is responsible for his wayward party youth taking the law into their own hand? when will rawlings and atta Mills travel to London and listen to the corruption case that is currently taking place there? has he forgotten that he was the president while atta mills was vice when the said corruption took place? I want him to comment on it if he thinks he and his thievery party are innocent. I now know that Rawlings is a shameful rag that cannot be used for anything. I have spared him this time otherwise I would have used some words for you that if you read it you will go and hung yourself. hypocrite
Rawlings and Muntaka are simply jokers.
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