Rawlings to Be Placed Under House Arrest

Aftermath of ?Boom? Speech
THE NATIONAL Concord can reveal that former President J. J. Rawlings may soon be placed under house arrest in the interest of national security.

Reports picked up at the weekend suggest that this is the option favoured by the national security apparatus which have declared him a security threat in the wake of his ?positive defiance? call in Kumasi about 10 days ago. If government gives the go-ahead, it is likely that the BNI will re-invite the ex-President and detain him pending his final confinement in one of the many houses belonging to the state across the country.

Security personnel Concord fingered were tight-lipped over which state house the former President would be placed under house arrest in, but indications are that he will be housed outside Accra, possibly Akuse, or Dodi Island. Concord gathered that late last week the National Security settled for this option among several others because of the former President?s ?boom? speech in Kumasi, his call for positive defiance, and other activities that he has been allegedly engaging in since he handed over power to President John Agyekum Kufuor.

It will be recalled that on the assumption of office of the NPP, and upon the advice of national security, the ex-President was banned from entering security zones in the country, including Burma Camp.

This was after the ex-President had made constant visits to Burma Camp, on one of which he reportedly asked to be allowed to fly a jet fighter.

Concord intelligence has learnt that the panel of interrogators who met the ex-President Rawlings on his second visit to the BNI questioned him about his alleged unacceptable movements and manoeuvres.

They reportedly informed him that his activities were detrimental to national security.

According to our sources at the BNI, the former President could not offer any acceptable answers about his activities to the interrogation panel. Readers would recall that former President Hilla Limann, whose People National Party (PNP) government was overthrown by then Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings on December 31, 1982, was put under house arrest at Akosombo. General F. K. W. Akuffo, after his palace coup, also put Gen. Acheampong under house arrest in Akosombo.

Minutes after he had been released from the BNI last week, ex-President Rawlings attacked Nana Akufo Addo, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the National Security Coordinator, Mr. Francis Opoku and the former security advisers, General Hamidu, for advising President Kufuor to move against him.

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