TWO WELL-built young men in their thirties, who claim to have come from the Central Region, have threatened to unmask the bigwigs in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), if they ever attempted to launch any smear campaign or vile propaganda against Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Jerry Rawlings'longest-serving minister of Finance, who will be contesting the flagbearership slot of the NDC in the party's December 2002 congress.

Calling themselves Pacheco and Taller, the two who invited this reporter by telephone to a spot inside the Trade Fair Centre in Accra over the weekend, told Chronicle they are aware of a plot by some elements in the NDC, especially those belonging to the Mills' faction, to release highly confidential documents to the "enemy press" like the Statesman, the Ghanaian Chronicle and Free Press, with the aim of immobilising Dr. Kwesi Botchwey and his campaign team "who already have a difficult task combing the length and breadth of the country to reveal to Ghanaians Rawlings' real intentions.

"For those of us in the National Reform Party (NRP), the war is not yet over. This is just the beginning. When Vincent Assiseh, the NDC scribe, told the world that the NDC is not a political party, but a machine put together with the aim of winning elections, it was just the tip of the iceberg," he declared.

Challenging the party to prove that it is truly democratic, Pacheco and Taller advised Jerry Rawlings "in his own interest" to prove in word and deed to the whole world that the Council of Elders recently inaugurated by the party is not a camouflage to dilute the powers of Dr. Obed Asamoah as chairman of the party.

"He did it to General Akafia; it is the same thing he is trying to do to Dr. Obed Asamoah to ensure that his (Rawlings) ultimate interests are served."

Flapping documents in the face of this reporter, the two teased: "At the appropriate time, we will let you have all these. Jerry Rawlings has given this nation a 'boom I and II' in less than two years. We will give him a boom that will knock him out for the rest of his life, if he doesn't keep quiet and lead a normal life, but chooses to muddy our calm political waters."

The two told the Chronicle that concerned members of the party owe it a duty to the good people of Ghana to help build a truly democratic political environment in Ghana in which all manner of people, whether high or low, rich or poor, Ewe or Ashanti, can contribute to the growth of the nation."

They further told the paper that when they struck in 1998, most Ghanaians under-estimated their firepower or even misunderstood their mission.

That mission and programme are still on course and they will continue till the NDC is totally delivered from the clutches of the political mafia now controlling the party.