Kidnap at Rawlings’s house was cooked up – Kofi Adams

Kofi Adams         The special aide to former President Jerry John Rawlings is contesting claims that a reporter of The Insight newspaper was kidnapped around the private house of Mr Rawlings at Adjiringano in Accra, and that it was ostensibly authorized by his outfit. He said his boss has no idea about the kidnapping, stressing that the former president and his family has no interest in ‘picking’ up any journalist for whatever reason “let alone a journalist from the Insight newspaper because he is taking any photographs”. He also placed on record that “nobody applied to their office that he was visiting their private property to take pictures”. Dauda Mohammed was reportedly captured to an unknown destination by some assailants whilst taking pictures of the house near East Legon on Monday afternoon. His other colleague journalist, Duke Tagoe, who said he was with him but managed to escape, told Joy FM that the observation he made indicated that the assailants were authorized by the Rawlingses to patrol around the house. Tagoe said he was really traumatized by the ‘frightening” incident, describing the attack on his colleague as “very, very aggressive”. He was however not certain with the number of the BMW car that he said whisked Dauda Mohammed away – he gave the registration number as either GW 8180 R or GR 8180 W. But Kofi Adams rebutted his claims saying they were all calculated to “ridicule” the Rawlingses but would not succeed. “Just listen to the man talking [referring to Tagoe], he is just not making any sense, if he has been put up to it I think he should get back to those who sent him that he could not display and act very well and that they have failed.” Mr Adams further stated that: “Any attempt by anybody to try to ridicule the former president and his family would fail and this is one such thing they have started and it will not work, it will not wash.” He stated categorically that his checks from the security personnel on duty in the house indicate that “no activity” of that sort took place there. He said the office of ex-President Rawlings has not put any patrol team around the house. He also explained that the Rawlingses are not residing there yet because it is uncompleted. The special aide stated that the alleged car in question does not belong to the Rawlingses family as well. But in response, Tagoe asserted that either “Kofi Adams doesn’t know what goes on in the house or he is deliberately hiding the truth from Ghanaians.” He described the edifice as an “active house very well decorated with a swimming pool” with people living in there. He recounted that before his colleague was accosted the car in question was seen patrolling the house about three times and had observed that they were authorized by the former first family to patrol in and around the house. “We had finished and were in the course of leaving. We were walking right in front of the house trying to take a picture of the gate of the house when all of a sudden this car just came right in front of Dauda and asked him to jump into the car. Dauda refused, he rushed away and the car chased him, which I saw that he had been actually captured on the floor. It was very, very aggressive. They just drove him into the car and it sped off ,” he narrated to Joy News. The Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., said all attempts to reach Dauda Mohammed on phone have proven futile. A formal case has been made to the police and he assured that the police would be assisted with all the needed information in the course of their investigations with the hope of “finding the gentleman and ensuring his security”. Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana