Former President John Rawlings has remarked that whilst he can drink from a gift of justice, he cannot expect to get justice from a gift of drinks.

The ex-president is alleged to have made the remark in an informal chat with a friend, who passed it on to ?The Ghana Palaver?.

Rawlings is also alleged to have started that against the background of the kind of treatment he had been subjected to by the NPP Government, the political persecution and prosecution of his colleagues in government, the criminalisation of his government and his era, as well as his policies and the untold suffering of the masses of the people under the NPP administration, he could not be expected to pretend that all was well and that such goodwill existed between him and the NPP government, as could be sealed with Christmas gift of drinks.

Ex-President Rawlings, who had earlier indicated his intention to issue a formal statement on the matter of his refusal of the NPPP Government?s Christmas Day gift of drinks, was alleged to have changed his mind later after listening to President Kufuor?s characterisation of himself and the NDC Government as ?bullies, vote-buyers and terrorists.?

Our sources report the ex-President to have uttered something to the effect that ?Thank God, Ghanaians are now getting to know who they really are. At least I have never been a pretender and never will be one.?