BNI's Invitation of JJ: Act of Harassment -Tony Aidoo

Dr. Tony Aidoo, former Deputy Minister of Defence, has described ex-President Jerry John Rawlings' invitation to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), on Tuesday this week, as an act of harassment that has more or less a feature of demonisation of the ex-President and everything he stands for.

He said it was an act of invasion and abrogation of the former President's human rights.

Rawlings, he added, has an obligation, relative to the legacy that he left for this country and to the current campaign of criminalisation and demonisation of his administration by the New Patriotic Party-led government.

Speaking on Joy FM, morning show yesterday, Dr. Aidoo who claimed to have been provoked by invasion of former President Rawlings' human rights to break his silence, said the action of the NPP government was not justified.

"I think this is a sufficient and legitimate reason for all Ghanaians to exercise their freedom of speech and condemn acts of the current NPP government," he said.

According to Dr. Aidoo, having been head of state for almost 20 years, ex-President Rawlings has a vast experience at his disposal to place at the benefit of this country.

He believed that people are paranoid over Rawlings' comment because they have realised that they have an incompetent administration that cannot deliver social and economy welfare to the people of Ghana.

He further alleged that the NPP administration is bent on creating a panic situation in the country and attacked Dr. Baffour Agyemang Duah, the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), saying that his analysis over the issue has revealed his political alliance with the NPP.

Earlier in the morning, Dr. Duah had made a point to the effect that Rawlings as any citizen of Ghana has the right to free expression, and went on to say among other things that unfortunately his past, as a multiple coup maker and as the longest serving President, would tend to impose certain responsibilities on him especially in his public conduct.

He was of the opinion that former President Rawlings' statement over the weekend was not different from what he has been saying for the past 20 years and said there was no need for a knee jerk action anytime he made such a pronouncement.

He added that all what needs to be done is to have the security agencies on top of things.

Turning to party politics, Dr. Aidoo barked at Dr. Obed Asamoah, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying, he could not understand why Dr. Asamoah, who he, Tony, alleged was voted as chairman of the party because he bought votes refused to comment on the Rawlings speech.

He said, even though Dr. Asamoah has the right to remain silent on the issue, he has a duty as a party chairman to comment on the situation, where party functionaries are invited to the BNI for questioning simply because they held a lawful assembly at which the former president was said to have made inflammatory statements.

He fumed at Dr. Asamoah, saying he foresaw the problems that the NDC would encounter under his leadership, adding that the problems are not only manifesting but they are mushrooming.

"We cannot redirect ourselves effectively under the leadership of a person whose act is sabotage and has diverted party funds," Tony asserted.