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General News of Tuesday, 13 June 2017

Source: alhajjnewspaper.com

Kweku Baako vows to release 'dirty' files on Nana Konadu

Kweku Baako, Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Kweku Baako, Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide

Former President Jerry John Rawlings appears to have brought more troubles for his better half with his recent “sermon” on corruption as Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide; Abdul Malik Kweku Baako is threatening to make public “stinking’ dossier on the former first family, especially, Nana Konadu’s unethical conduct.

According to veteran journalist, he has a whole dossier on the former military strongman and his wife over some of their dubious transactions while he (Rawlings) was in office, especially; those relating to how his wife, Nana Konadu fraudulently acquired a number of state properties including the Nsawam Cannery.

Warning, Mr. Rawlings, and his household cannot tout themselves as apostles of probity and accountability, Mr. Baako said the NDC Founder and former president of Ghana, presided over the most stinking corruption scandals including the infamous British construction firm, Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal involving key officials of his administration.

“In this country, justice, fairness, and equity can never be served. Kufour was one of my best leaders but one decision I didn’t agree with him during his administration was the filing of nolle prosequi, to discontinue the case against Nana Konadu in the Nsawam Cannery case, I wanted it probed to the last end”.

According to the award-winning veteran journalist, “The Nsawam Cannery case was a stinking deal involving the former First Family at that time. I started that investigation, I have every single document…on the ‘stinking’ deal to expose him,” Baako boasted.

Sources close to the Mr. Baako told The aL-hAJJ that in no time soon, he (Mr Baako) will release jaw-dropping documents covering some of the corrupt deals Mrs. Rawlings engaged in when her husband was Head of State and later, President.

He also laughed off explanations by ex-president Rawlings suggesting he received only $2 million from the late Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha. According to Mr Baako, he had incontrovertible evidence to show the amount involved was $5 million and not the $2m being claimed by Jerry Rawlings.

Former President Rawlings, during the 38th-anniversary celebrations of the June 4 uprising in Wa, took a subtle swipe at former President John Mahama for doing nothing about corruption during his term in office.

He said under the past NDC government, some officials amassed wealth and "used money as a political weapon to become kingmakers."

"If I was doing it this way if my colleagues were doing it this way, would anyone of them be where they are today," Rawlings queried?

He used the occasion to also demand a change in the leadership of the party, adding that “without new leaders, the NDC can never come back to power.”

On accusations he received $5 million bribe money from the former Nigerian President Sani Abacha, Mr. Rawlings, after several years denying receipt of the said money eventually, opened up in an interview with a Nigerian Guardian newspaper in July 2016. But he insisted, the money was $2m and not $5m, claiming the money “was used for nationalistic purposes”.

But Mr. Baako found his clarification not only too late but, also fictitious. He said he has evidence from the man who was sent to the Airport to take the money from the Nigerian officials.

For him, Mr. Rawlings himself has gone against the values of probity and accountability; that he claimed inspired him to topple a military regime on June 4, 1979.

Mr. Baako said corruption has become an albatross around Ghana’s neck because of people like the former president.

“He is equally part of the mess,” Baako stressed.

The New Crusading Guide Managing Editor believes that the June 4 celebration is progressively losing its significance and fading into archives.

The former president in his view is the only person who is trying to hold on but “gradually and surely history is judging him.”

He said the former president should put a stop to his ‘holier than thou’ attitude because he is just as guilty as the people he is accusing.