Ben Ephson warns Rawlings - "Secrets would be told"

The Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Mr. Ben Ephson, has warned ex-President Rawlings to get his facts right before daring to attack him else he would be forced to reveal certain secrets.

He was responding to allegations by the former President that he, Ephson, has always been a secret spy for foreign intelligence agencies and that the journalist, while in prison, had authored a coup speech for Major (Rtd) Courage Quashigah.

But Mr. Ephson said he was exercising restraint in his response because he respected the Office of the President that Mr. Rawlings once occupied.

"I have never at any time sold secrets of this country, if Mr. Rawlings wants to revisit the Isa Model book and what he did with those Germans and so on, the secrets would be told but I am saying he is a former Head of State and I would be measured for now”.

"I was arrested by the PNDC in September 1987 and released in February 1988. I spent five months in the BNI and I was released, ifI was working for the foreign agencies that would have been a good opportunity for me to escape with my then four-month old baby and wife and go and enjoy life but I stayed in this country," he explained.

Mr. Ephson warned: "He is talking about the coup speech, he has opened the Pandora's Box and I hope he would be ready to take what is coming out of it; in the 90's Major Courage Quashigah was arrested for a coup attempt and he was in the BNI cells, other coup plotters had been tried and executed but for best reasons known to him, Major Quashigah was kept in BNI cells, I was approached by one of Quashigah's conspirators that I needed to write a coup speech."

The senior journalist said he wrote the speech to have evidence that indeed he had been contacted to do such work and that Major Quashigah read the speech, did some corrections to it and sent it back to him.

He said if Rawlings wants to know the details and facts of that issue, he should contact the then Deputy Director of National Security, one Commander Asasi-Gyimah who is still alive and was at the National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) to testify.

"In terms of measuring the speech, you know there are certain words I do not want to use because he has been a former head of state and it is unfortunate, but if he wants to attack me he should get the facts right.

"I want him to address the issue of how, if not for a few Ghanaians, the ex-president would have sent Ghana down the path of may be Zimbabwe or Nigeria; he should address that issue," Mr. Ephson added and advised that Mr. Rawlings is too tired and needed to rest.