Former President JJ Rawlings has said President Akufo-Addo won the 2016 elections because he fought with convictions while the party he founded -NDC- was engulfed by corruption.

Mr. Rawlings who appears overwhelmed by the anti-corruption gestures of the President says the margin of victory in the polls should be a significant lesson for the umbrella family.

Speaking to state-owned Graphic newspaper, the former military leader said the NDC must use their time in opposition cleans the party of corrupt elements.

“He is on a moral high ground and we in the NDC are down. He fought with the force of conviction and integrity and has beaten us to it. How far is the NDC prepared to go in reclaiming our high ground? Now the power mongering and corrupt ones are trying to sneak in their clutch,” he said.

He continued: “When a candidate that is starved of funds by even some of his own past party leadership is able to beat a well-resourced incumbent, it gives a clear indication of the force of conviction and the power of the might of right. If we don’t clean up, it will be impossible to defeat him”.

He said Akufo-Addo also exhibited loyalty worthy of emulation by appearing in court throughout the 2012 election petition hearing, when his running mate stood in the dock.

“When Nana Akufo-Addo took their 2012 electoral loss to the Supreme Court and we in the NDC in our omniscient manner were humiliating his running mate in the dock, was Nana Akufo-Addo not in court till the case was over?

“Juxtapose the loyalty Nana Akufo-Addo demonstrated to his running mate against Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings when she was being tried during the Kufuor regime. How many of us in the NDC turned up to show solidarity?

“The 31st December Movement suffered bankruptcy in supporting Atta Mills. How many of us bothered to show up in court to offer her moral support in recognition of the foundation she laid in leading the women from the PNDC to the NDC? During that trial, Peter Ala Adjetey, the then Speaker of Parliament, whose son, NDC’s well-fed Larry Adjetey, was charged together with my wife, threatened Kufuor that if he did not drop the ‘false’ charge against his son, he would personally go to court to defend his son. Kufuor dropped his charges,” he noted.