President John Agyekum Kufuor has strongly defended allegations of a coup plot he made against former President Rawlings, at a by-election rally in the Offinso South Constituency at the weekend. The President has also dismissed criticisms that the platform on which he spoke about such a sensitive national issue was improper.

His Spokesperson, Mr Andrew Awuni in an interview said, the President indeed has impeccable security reports, linking Mr Rawlings to renewed attempts to truncate the nation's 14-year-old democratic experiment through the barrel of the gun and that he has no regrets for making the matter public at a political rally.

Over the weekend, President Kufuor directly accused his predecessor of seeking financial help from an unnamed oil rich nation to topple his government.

It was the first time the President made any such allegation against Mr Rawlings, whose public utterances have been cited by some powerful New Patriotic Party (NPP) guns as synonymous to treason.

Mr Awuni said President Kufuor is confident that the nation’s security personnel are willing and ready to protect and defend nation’s constitution and security at all times. Meanwhile, Mr Fifi Kwettey, a spokesperson to the former President has declared that his boss does not need external funding in order to stage yet another successful coup d’ tat a in the country.

Fifi Kwettey told newsmen that Mr Rawlings has no intension of destabilizing the democratic dispensation he helped establish in 1992, instead, the good people of Ghana would themselves topple the NPP regime through a democratic election in the 2008 elections.

Critics of Mr Rawlings say his public utterances about perceived hardship in the country these days and alleged massive bribery and corruption in the government of the NPP are similar to those he made prior to his second successful coup which overthrew the Liman regime.

His critics have used this as basis to conclude that Mr Rawlings is a a serious threat to national security.