Rawlings' request is strange - Nana Akomea

Accra, July 17, GNA - Nana Akomea, Minister of Information, on Thursday described as "strange" the request of Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings for a chemical interrogation to enable him to mention the 15 top New Patriotic Party (NPP) officials, including Cabinet Ministers, alleged to be involved in the murder of 34 women in the late 1990s up to 2000.

He said initially government had wanted to ignore the Ex-President "but the danger is that our restraint might be taken for complicity". Nana Akomea, who was speaking at a press conference in Accra, was responding to the Ex-President's allegation that some Cabinet Ministers in the New Patriotic Government masterminded the serial killings of 34 women.

He said Ex-President Rawlings, who ruled Ghana for almost 20 years, never provided the law enforcement agencies with any chemical interrogation system.

"His priorities, even at the tail end of the his regime, included buying a 20 million dollar jet plane, yet he now sees the relevance of those gadgets before exposing those, who committed this crime during his regime.

"For a person, who has taken this country through the Citizens Vetting Committee, where faceless people tried accused persons for five minutes and handed down five years sentences, this new found demand for chemical interrogation is so strange."

Asked how come the killings stopped immediately after the NPP government came into office, Nana Akomea said on assuming office, the government deepened the security/civil protection, which led to the minimization of the crime wave in the country.

He said during former Rawlings' regime, they claimed there were no vehicles for the Police to work with "but one could count about six Police vehicles following his convoy and it is likely that the killers took advantage of the situation at the time".

Ex-President Rawlings on Tuesday repeated his call for chemical interrogation or a lie detector before mentioning the names of the alleged NPP functionaries.

He told party members and Journalists that "the other option that could be available for the government for me to produce the names is to have a mutual group, preferably an international body that would mediate and ensure that justice prevailed when the names are mentioned".