Editorial News of Tuesday, 16 October 2001

Source: --

"Jerry is not scared" -Smith

Mr. Victor Smith, Special Aide to ex-President Rawlings, has declared unambiguously and categorically that his boss (Mr. Rawlings) “is not scared of anybody at all” in the country, according to a story carried by The Crusading Guide.

The Ex-President, according to him, is the least troubled about anything that any newspaper publishes – “be it a political issue, manoeuvres, machination and so on to destroy him into disrepute”.

Mr. Smith was speaking to The Crusading Guide concerning the possibility of Mr. Rawlings being prosecuted in connection with the transcript of a recorded conversation (‘The Rawlings Tape), as published by The Statesman a year ago – “about some grisly events of the Rawlings era, which if the tape is to be believed, bear the direct handprint of the ex-president himself”.

The paper recalls that the airing on Joy FM of the recorded conversation which talked about the bombing sometime ago of the Ringway Hotel, a conspiracy to bomb the Provident Towers, the suspected arson of the late Tony Gbeho’s house at the Ringway Estates, an alleged plot to bomb Captain Kojo Tsikata’s Abelenkpe Residence and the murder of a Catholic Priest whose body was found on the beach in the early 1980’s, among other events, led to the arrest and questioning of some journalists including the Editor-in-chief of this paper (Kweku Barko), and the current Attorney General and Minster for Justice, Nana Akufo Addo on the orders of the NDC Government.

Though Smith said he had not listened to the contents of the famous tape recording, he maintained his boss was not in the least worried or scared about anything/anybody/ at all and that the famous “Albert/ Rawlings Tape” could go before the Attorney General.