... ENERVATED NATIONAL SECURITY HAS HIM CHECKMATED.....
... LIVES IN ?18 MILLION A WEEK LUXURY IN LONDON…
The swaggering, intimidating presence of ex-President Rawlings may still be lingering on the national scene amidst recurring reports that he is contemplating a coup, giving weight to recent utterances of some NDC members and the man's own body language.

Chronicle's own intelligence assessment indicates a solid strategy of containment by an enervated national security system that has effectively checkmated the prospect.

Last week's bloodcurdling details of murder, drug and gold heists given by ex-PNDC hit man, James Adabuga, has drawn an interesting reaction from the former president through his spokesman Victor Smith.

The report has been carried by the international wire services, Reuters, in particular, being one.

Smith is quoted as saying that many people, particularly in South Africa, know that his master, President Rawlings, is locked in the cross hairs of an alert national security whose head, known simply as 'Francois,' is heard through his action rather than words as characterized by the numerous bungling runs of the Hamidu days.

"We were in South Africa recently; everybody has seen through it that everything is targeted at one man," Smith said, adding that Rawlings had described the allegations as absurd and had wondered why the Kufuor government is entertaining coup plotters and using them to "throw mud on him." (He did not say whether Rawlings had his tongue in his cheek when he made those observations).

But probably the most direct confirmation that he may have been entertaining the idea of an unconventional way of recapturing power may be gleaned from what Jerry Rawlings did not say to Alec Russell, a reporter of the biggest circulating broadsheet in the United Kingdom in February, this year, when the rumours were at its peak.

The Russell interview was published in the February 8th edition of the Telegraph, but passed without much attention from cursory readers. The Headline was 'AFRICA IS A JUNGLE OF DECEIT.' It was arranged by a West Indian friend and contact of Kojo Tsikata, Obed Asamoah and Jerry Rawlings, called Martin Dennis, a respected black broadcaster on News 24, London.

But a semiotic analysis reveals a hidden message buried in the last two paragraphs.

The punch line came when Russell spun a question as to what he would do in the face of the litany of accusations against African leaders by him (Rawlings) and a pointed one about his successor (President JAK Kufuor).

The interviewer recalled Rawlings' alleged pronouncement that the NPP government does not have the confidence of the military.

"What about your successor in office? Would he just sit down and watch things go as they are or would he do something about it?" He asked.

The reporter was obviously expecting the serial coup maker-ex-President to say something definitive as he had consistently intervened in Ghana's democratic process through coups whenever he had noticed things going a certain way he did not like and set against the background of his disdain for the way the country is being run by the NPP.

Significantly, Rawlings flatly declined to give any assurances or affirmations.

The penultimate paragraph of the Telegraph report read: "Can this restless and outspoken populist abide watching from the sidelines and devote his time instead to his current project, an AIDS initiative for Africa?

"For the first time during the interview - and possibly the first time in his career- he held his tongue." The implications are ominous.

RAWLINGS' PALATIAL HOLE

Chronicle report from Kci, a private international due diligence company run by Kofi Coomson to carry out an episodic surveillance of the peripatetic former blowman and other issues, wired an interesting account last week.

After Rawlings was trailed to a Chinese restaurant at Bayswater, an upper crust West End location in London, a chauffeur-driven 'limo' was chartered to follow the scent. They ended up at a palatial 10-storey building holding 97 well-appointed one, two, three and four-bedroom blocks at the super expensive famous Park Lane, London. This block is right by the famous Hyde Park; fifteen minutes' walk to the famous Harrods stores. (Readers can view where the ex-President stayed by visiting the website www.55parklane.com.

It is owned by Mohammed Al Fayed, the Egyptian multimillionaire, through his company, Harrods estate, and run by Ian Merrick and not the English woman, Sue Wellesley, an Eddie Annan/Rawlingses confidant, who played a key role at the height of the La Palm Beach hotel/estates scandal.

Chronicle published tonnes about this matter that has finally now become the subject of a legal inquiry and court action.

Ghana Commercial Bank, the cash cow, was used to play a 'diabolical role' in the dubious project, despite Chronicle persistent reports over the matter. (We shall revisit).

All the 97 units in the block of 55 Park Lane are for sale - prices ranging from 530,000 to 3.6 million pounds, but visitors can still rent flats since only 60 per cent of those apartments have been sold.

The concierge at the apartment told Chronicle source last Sunday that Rawlings had checked out over three weeks ago, an indication that Rawlings may not be one of the owners of the apartments.

However, the minimum number of days allowed for stays at these apartments is 13 weeks. However price indications show that the rate per week is 1,300 pounds for a single room deluxe, enough to host a constituency congress of the Eastern region branch of the NDC, with enough to spare for salaries of the head office staff.

In a related development, Chronicle additionally picked up independent reports about the 'undue pressure' being applied on President Kufuor by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president and the executive secretary of the Africa Union, Mr. Ammara Essy, over allegations of manhandling of Rawlings by the NPP.

Surprisingly, the London office and the Washington office bend over backwards for the former President whenever he visits London on official or unofficial purposes. The London office assigns a welfare officer to meet and greet him and a chauffeur-driven car escorts him around the UK. Kci confirmed these.

Chronicle limited intelligence has noted that a good number of his more fanatical loyalists in the military are now in Equatorial Guinea guarding oil installations in that country whose leader developed a relationship with Rawlings when he was President.

Another Rawlings loyalist and 'financial wizard,' Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, established a commanding presence within the oil industry in the country, pairing with a son of the country's President.

Meanwhile, ex-Corporal Matthew Adabuga's testimony at the National Reconciliation Commission has stirred many Ghanaians resident overseas and media institutions.

However in the court of public opinion where it matters, many people find the account too much to believe.

A surprisingly, 48.2% of 782 people polled by Ghanaweb.com say they do not believe Adabuga's story, with 41.3% saying that they believe him (figures as at 17:00 GMT Monday May 24, 2003). However, Adabuga's account has been corroborated by a number of Ghanaians in London who associated with Adabuga in exile.

Those who have always known about the Adabuga story include Mr. Stanley Armattoe, a lecturer in Huddersfield, UK and a member of the CPP's London branch, who said he had known about the story for some 20 years now when Adabuga met them in exile.