One of the desperate straws that the haters of the PNDC have constantly flagged as a pointer that the Rawlingses had something to do with the killing of the judges and the retired military officer is the famous bunch of keys of the vehicle that was used to abduct the four victims on that fateful night of June 30, 1982.

The impression has always been created that the fact that the keys of the vehicle were said to have been picked up on a table in the apartment of Mrs Konadu Rawlings was a solid indication of that President Rawlings and his wife were somehow involved in the murders.

What is all this talk about keys being picked from the table of Mrs Rawlings and the vehicle having been taken from the compound overlooking the flat where the former first lady used to live? This was the question your factually reliable Lens put to Mrs Rawlings and the following was the response we obtained.

?I never knew about the fact that the vehicle in question used to be parked in the yard nor that the keys of the vehicle were among some dozens or more keys that were regularly left on my table every evening and picked up every morning. The first time it came to my notice was when the issue was mentioned during the SIB investigations.?

?The truth of the matter is that lots of vehicles were regularly parked in the compound which housed not just my flat but a number of other flats at the time. In those days, my house was not locked at all and used to be regularly frequented by a good number of people who frequently came in and out even in my absence. Many of these people were in the habit of parking their vehicles in the yard which was considered safe during those days of nightly curfews. Since my doors were never locked, the practice was to drop the keys of the vehicles on the table in my sitting room in the evening and pick them up in the mornings. Keys of approximately 10 to 15 vehicles used to be put on the table every evening.?

?We had nothing to do with the vehicle in question and as a matter of fact I did not even know that one of the vehicles that used to be parked in my yard was used for the crime until the matter came up during the investigations, as I said earlier.?

?My husband did not even know about the story of the vehicle and the keys until somewhere in 1998 when he got to hear about it and asked me what the story of the vehicle and the key on my table was all about.?

?To me, attempts being made to link us to the 1982 murders by using the issue of the keys are simply acts of political desperation which would not yield anything. A lot of dust has been thrown into the eyes of many people by these desperate elements and I think it is high time we put this issue of keys, which has always been a non-issue anyway, to the thrash can where it rightfully should be.?