*Remind Him Of NRC, Chris Asher, Matthew Adabugah & Tells Him To Count His Blessings *

Having been persecuted, traumatized and eventually booted out of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) by the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, ex-soldiers of the 64 Battalion of Infantry, popularly called “64 Commandos”, are furious with their former boss, ex-President J.J Rawlings for his relentless and vitriolic attacks on President J.E.A Mills, which is likely to return them to their dark days.

According to them, Mr. Rawlings’ uncomplimentary utterances have the tendency to undermine the credibility of the Mills government and thus cause its defeat at the 2012 polls.

The ex-soldiers, who prefer their identities protected for now, told The Herald that life under the NPP regime was nightmarish, a situation they pray they would never experience again in their lives.

They feel their dignity as human beings, husbands and fathers has been restored by the current Mills government with security jobs within the various security establishments.

It is for this reason that they think Mr. Rawlings’s, misguided rantings and ravings against President Mills are indications of his (Rawlings) self-centeredness and insensitivity to what befell them, as people who had laid down their lives to serve and safeguard him from Kufuor claws, after he exited power.

“Kufuor sent his men to search my home at Teshie-Nungua in Accra”, said one of the ex-commandos “all they saw was my military uniform, and yet I was branded as somebody planning a coup d’état and was detained, and subsequently discharged from the army.

“As a family man, how do I care for my family, how do I meet my responsibility as a man?” cried one of the ex-commandos.

According to him, the persecution was so serious that some of them were nearly killed by the enemies of Mr. Rawlings’ Revolution, particularly a group of dissidents which operated at The Castle Annex, called Peace Seekers.

He cited the two failed assassination attempts on their ex-Commander, Lt. Col. (rtd) Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, to murder him on his way to his village, and subsequently at his official residence, near the Ridge Hospital in Accra.

Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey is currently the National Security Coordinator. He was the officer in-charge of the ex-Commandos selected to give Mr. Rawlings and others in his government protection during his tenure in power.

“It was by the grace of God that, the man escaped all these attempts on his life,” but his younger brother, Emmanuel Gbevlo-Lartey walks about with many bullets in his body, because he was mistaken for Larry, and shot many times around the Shai Hills area, near Akuse,” he revealed.

According to him, a lot of the ex-commandos, in the prime of their lives, during the Kufuor era, were reduced to beggars for survival.

Another ex-commando, who had been part of the ex-President’s security detail, recalled how under the Kufuor administration, Mr. Rawlings himself was chased by assassins on his way to his Lakeside residence at Vume near Sogakope in the Volta Region, and insisted that Mr. Rawlings and his family must start counting their blessings.

He also reminded Mr. Rawlings of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), set up by then President Kufuor as well as the roles played by Lance Corporal Matthew Adabuga and Chris Asher, to get him implicated for extrajudicial killings, and said that Mr. Rawlings and his family were safer under the Mills regime.

A third officer, told The Herald “Even private security jobs to keep body and soul together were denied us, as NPP big men owned the private security companies. We couldn’t pay school fees and even fend for our families,” he disclosed, coming close to tears. He mentioned the case of Staff Sergeant (rtd), Tasiri who was among the soldiers who backed Mr. Rawlings during his June 4, 1979 Revolution.

According to him, Tasiri was reduced to a pauper, begging for a living. But with the assumption of the Mills’ government, he has something descent to do for a living.

He disclosed the dishonesty of Rawlings and his wife, saying that in spite of his consistent complaints and derision of the Mills’ government, Rawlings was granted anything he asked for, including the consistent fuelling of not less than five vehicles belonging to his household, vehicles and air tickets for himself and his accomplices for his numerous travels abroad.

“I wonder why he should refer to people around Mills as greedy bastards when his wife is greedier than everybody, considering the wealth she has”, he noted

He demanded to know where the Rawlingses got money from to educate their kids in expensive schools aboard. According to him, if their kids’ education was borne by friends, as Konadu would always want Ghanaians to believe, what did they do to those friends to warrant them reciprocating in such an expensive manner.