"They are afraid chemical interrogation will expose them" - JJ

IN A BARRAGE OF rare radio interviews last week, former President Rawlings insisted that his accusations that fifteen members of the Kufuor-led administration were behind the serial murders of women that ended in 2001 are not baseless.

He said those allegations are founded on facts that he would readily avail to the public if he is taken on by government on his challenge that they should make a lie detector test and a chemical interrogation available.

According to him, he would not cite the names of the alleged culprits without the government’s acceptance of the principle of taking those he would name through lie detector tests and chemical interrogation, since he had learned his lessons from the way the government handled the murder of the Ya Na.

He said he did not want the truth about his knowledge of the fifteen to be ambushed by government propaganda just as his information on the killing of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II, Monarch of the Dagbon State and forty others was ambushed.

Speaking in various interviews on Peace FM, Radio Gold and Adom FM last week, Rawlings challenged the government to test him on his allegations by meeting his demands.

“Why have they not taken me on my challenge. I’m telling you as I swear on the Bible, Koran and whatever it is, that, I know what I’m talking about. Now when I offer myself to be taken through chemical interrogation, to be broadcast internationally, I am the one making myself the most vulnerable person - twenty years in office with this kind of reputation I could destroy it all. [It’s] not them, I’m the one.

“In other words, if they think I’m doing politics, go ahead and take me through it and let me be disgraced if I lie….

“But they know. They know what l know. And that is why they are avoiding it”, Rawlings said in his interview on Peace FM Tuesday morning.

He denied politicising the issue but said he would not, however, name the alleged culprits without his demands being met.

“…I’d submit those names when l know that the submission of their names would only be of value if they were going to be subjected to chemical interrogation to enable us get the truth out of their heads....My fea is that they are going to ambush the truth. And one critical example was what happened in the death of the Ya-Na”, said the former Head of State.

He said when he picked up intelligence information prior to the death of the Ya-Na and relayed it to him and his elders, who also confirmed that they were worried about discord being set among the people of Dagbon by certain figures within government, he was accused of fomenting trouble.

“What did the government machinery do when they heard me saying these things?

“Because, l believe they knew what they were plotting as was subsequently proven by Mr Owusu Fordjuor’s (former BNI Director) report, which was discarded or disregarded by government. Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, former Minister for Information, put out a message that I was sowing seeds of tension and discord among the people” Rawlings said.

He alleged that the statement put out by the former Information Minister was designed to misrepresent his concerns and gave the impression that he was rather sowing seeds of discord among the people.

“Subsequently it (attack on Ya Na) took place,” Rawlings said, alleging that the government’s expectation was that he would be blamed by the public since information that he had sown the seeds had been made available to the same public.

Rawlings also accused the government of complicity in the murder of the Ya Na.

“…They had the audacity to go ahead, launch the attack kill more than 40 people; the Ya Na himself.”

He said Owusu Fordjuor had at the time and ahead of everyone filed a report on the same issue for the government.

“What did Kufuor do about it?” Rawlings asked, accusing the government of having an aversion for the truth.

He said the government cannot stand up for the truth because that will undermine its political existence.

He accused government of having done a shoddy work in the investigations of the Ya Na’s murder, saying that the Wuaku Commission did not even invite Fordjuor to appear before it.

He then asked why anyone would expect him to produce the names of the fifteen alleged killers after all these.

“l will not provide the names unless we can put in place a mechanism that will ensure that when the names are provided, we can take it through a medium that would ensure that truth and justice will immediately follow.

According to him, any international re-investigation into the murder of the Ya Na would uncover a massive cover-up by the government.

For him, it is only ignorant people who would argue that his preference for chemical interrogation and lie detector tests is a ruse to escape mentioning the names of the fifteen alleged masterminds of the murders.