Mills ‘bribes’ JJ. With Cheque

IN WHAT may be described as a last-minute attempt to placate Former President Jerry John Rawlings and his family, ahead of the 2012 polls which is just a year away, President John Evans Atta Mills on Friday ordered the full payment for the reconstruction of the burnt Ridge residence of the NDC founder.

A cheque for an undisclosed amount for the reconstruction of the building at Ridge in Accra was delivered to the contractors by a Deputy Chief of Staff, Valerie Sawyer, on Friday around 3.00pm, just a day after loyalists of the former first couple gave a one-month ultimatum demanding the reconstruction of the gutted house.

Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (FONKAR) and a group known as ‘Youth With Conviction of Principles’ (YWCP), on Thursday gave a one-month ultimatum to the government to rebuild the burnt house among other demands, else they would hit the streets in serial demonstrations.

A deep-throat source, who divulged the information to DAILY GUIDE on anonymity, said the money for the consultancy and construction works had all been paid in full.

Mr Rawlings was said to have rejected a multi-million-cedi apartment at the plush Trassacco Valley at East Legon on the basis that he was not looking for a temporary accommodation and the Trassacco houses were too expensive.

Former President Rawlings’ Ridge residence was gutted by a ferocious fire more than a year ago, but the Mills Administration had strangely done nothing about it, leading to last Thursday’s demonstration.

A deputy Information Minister, Baba Jamal, a couple of weeks ago, told a radio station in Accra that the reconstruction of Rawlings’ house was not a priority for government, but when the JJ boys gave the ultimatum, Mills was said to have panicked, ordering immediate payment for the reconstruction of the house.

A source said government’s surprise payment of the cash for the reconstruction was necessitated by the enormous pressure mounted on it by the FONKAR group.

The source, who is very close to the Rawlingses, said government had also promised to pay all outstanding salaries due the staff in the former president’s office with immediate effect.

Asked whether former President Rawlings was happy about the development, the source replied, “My brother, it is too early to say anything.”

According to him, the NDC founder was not the type of person one could predict easily, noting that what the government did had made most of the followers of the Rawlingses happy.

He was however quick to point out that other issues concerning people like Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC General Secretary, who was said to have described Rawlings as a ‘barking dog’, and Baba Jamal, who called Nana Konadu a frustrated woman, among others raised by FONKAR during the recent press conference, should also be considered by government to bring total peace and unity in the NDC.

Political pundits believed that the NDC would fail to retain political power if the party’s founder, Jerry Rawlings refused to campaign for the party in the 2012 national polls.

Having ruled the country for close to two decades, the former Ghana leader had staunch supporters in every part of the country and this therefore made Mr. Rawlings a force to reckon with in Ghanaian politics.

NDC insiders were of the conviction that elements like the party’s Ashanti regional chairman, Yaw Obimpeh, who had publicly stated that the Rawlingses were no longer a force to reckon with, would laugh at the wrong side of their mouths if the NDC founder decided to stay away from the party’s campaign.