"I Did Not Insult The President" -Lawyer

Mr. Francis Kojo- Smith, a constitutional and human rights lawyer, has denied ever insulting President John Agyekum Kufuor or trying to bring the name of the president into disrepute.

In a strongly worded letter fired to the editor of the Palaver, a copy of which was leaked to Chronicle, Mr. Kojo-Smith affirmed that the tenor of his statement captured in a feature published in the Chronicle on Saturday, last week and which the Palaver twisted to suit its propaganda policies, “was merely to highlight a particular problem which has bedeviled our body politic.”

“I did not describe His Excellency the President, Mr. J. A. Kufuor, as diabolical. No intelligent person by any stretch of imagination can ever describe the president as diabolical,” he stated.

Continuing, he declared that his view about the president is that he is one of the mildest and kindest presidents Ghana has been blessed to have. “I have often overheard from quite a number of Ghanaians that he is too soft. I believe that this is the nature of his personality.”

Kojo-Smith’s concern, however, is the tendency of opposition politicians to rally round coup makers and to give their support and encouragement when they should be seen to be defying such characters.

He stated that his fear is that, if a private soldier in the army today should overthrow the present administration, there still would be some opposition politicians who would enthusiastically join the bandwagon.

He revealed that during the period of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, (the June 4 mutiny), when Rawlings and some of his associates were not willing to hand over power to the incoming Dr. Hilla Limann administration, there were some politicians who encouraged him to hang on to power “despite the efforts some of us made to get him to relinquish power.”

Francis Kojo-Smith, according to the rebuttal to the Palaver, believed the president might not have been aware of the manoeuvrings before the December 31, 1981 coup d’etat.

“I believe that he was only an emissary and the only reason why I mentioned his name is to bring the issue poignantly home.”

Taking a swipe at the Palaver, he charged, “As much as I am in favour of unrestrained press freedom, I think it is the responsibility of journalists not to twist statements to suit their political agenda.

“I am a fighter and I do not need anyone to do my fighting for me. If the Palaver has an agenda against the president, they should have the courage to take him on without involving others or hiding behind others to throw their arrows at him.”