Deputy General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen has described claims of an assassination attempt on the life of former President Jerry John Rawlings in the run-up to the 2008 elections by elements said to be within the then ruling New Patriotic Party as balderdash.

The former President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is reported to have claimed that a serving officer in the Ghana Army was contracted by the Kufuor-led NPP government to assassinate him.

The current head of Human Security Department of the National Security Office, Brig. General Nunoo-Mensah and the Navy commander at the time (who he did not name) were also set for the hit allegedly engineered by elements within the government at the time.

The unnamed soldier, Rawlings claimed, was arrested by some officers of the army who knew of and disagreed with the intention.

“A soldier was given a gun for him to kill me, General Nunoo Mensah and a Navy commander during the 2008 campaign time but the soldier who had been given the weapon to undertake such a heinous crime was arrested by his fellow soldiers…,” he told mourners at the funeral of the late Kwawumanhene in the Eastern Region.

But according to the former Interior Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, he never heard any plan, be it in 2008, that a soldier was contracted to kill Mr. Rawlings and two other former Army Generals.

Speaking on Oman Fm’s National Agenda Morning Show, Nana Obiri Boahen, who said he did not want to offend the family of Mr. Rawlings due to the respect he has for the wife, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, insisted the former president's allegation is news to him.

He insisted that there was no such attempt on the life of the NDC Founder by the NPP.

“I respect the wife [Mrs Konadu Agyeman Rawlings] and the children because they don’t get involved in unnecessary politics...I never heard any plan in 2008 during the election campaign that a soldier was contracted to kill Rawlings and other two Army Generals; this will be news to me…I will restrict myself to Rawlings as an individual but not as a father or a husband.....at his age, his comment should bring peace and unity and not division in the country. It doesn’t show maturity and if he has any evidence to help bring justice, he should give it to the Police for investigation,” he chided.