THE SAGES say there’s no smoke without fire. Weeks of investigations by a Daily Guide undercover team, has confirmed that the purported plot to eliminate Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, the former President, is not a red herring after all.

To that end, the Daily Guide can swear on all fours that the fear that the life of the former President is in danger is not completely baseless as a section of the populace has been bandying about.

The paper’s probes confirmed that, indeed there’s some naked truth or credibility in the fears being expressed by the office of the former president – as frequently amplified by his aide and Special assistant, Mr. Victor Smith.

The fears of an assassination plot on the former President have since been crystallized into a news release and circulated formally to some media houses including Radio Gold and Free Press, by the Public Relations Directorate of the former president.

Daily Guide’s investigations have however revealed that the danger posed to the life of former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, could be emanating from some disgruntled soldiers and militia men who have connections to the former ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration. These persons, the paper learnt, were allegedly sent to Togo and Equatorial Guinea in the aftermath of the loss of power in the 2000 General Elections by the former government. The election defeat compelled former President Rawlings to hand-over the reins of power to the new government headed by the in-coming President J.A. Kufuor.

Further investigations by the paper revealed that these soldiers were sent to stay put in Lome, Togo, and Equatorial Guinea and to look out or await further instructions. This is because according to Daily Guide’s sources, their services were going to be required later for some operations (Ops) in the country after the NDC regime had allegedly yielded place to the NPP who had won the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The paper’s impeccable sources hinted directly that these soldiers or militia men were allegedly promised stipends for themselves and their families back in Ghana.

The above macabre scenarios, were confirmed to the Daily Guide by various unimpeachable sources yesterday. According to the sources, for sometime now, moneys as salaries and allowances for the stand-by personnel in Togo and Equatorial Guinea have stopped flowing and this has brought about disaffection among the soldiers, some of whom are complaining bitterly and have consequently vowed to revenge their neglect.

Our unimpeachable source rationalised that due to lack of the promised funds flowing to these elements, they have decided to exact their pound of flesh and are, therefore, posing a threat to their own master, whom they were made to believe knows about the so-called operations.

Daily Guide. diplomatic sources, however, did not rule out a scarecrow on the part of the former president to lead the Kufuor government astray as to rush into taking some ill-advised security measures.

Nearly 20 months on, (after the former government had left office), these men have been ‘cooling their heels’, and according to our information, the stipends promised them either never arrived or had gradually dried out. Desperate to keep body and soul together, and with news of starvation hitting their families, wives going into adulterous relationships and school fees not being paid, those in Equatorial Guinea are therefore said to have found jobs in the oil and fish industry, to survive.

The livelihood of those in Lome, however, Daily Guide was reliably informed, have fallen on hard rocks, and desperate for survival, some of them are said to have taken the decision to abandon their covert (secret) mission of ‘wait and see’ and have returned to in Ghana.

The source said these are the personnel whom Victor Smith claims he has been seeing lurking in the vicinity of the North Ridge residence of the former President whom he alleges are planning to assassinate Rawlings.

These soldiers, according to the respected diplomatic source, feel cheated, because they feel that they were being prepared to carry out someone’s dirty operation. They are also said to be frustrated over the incessant media reports about the wealth and luxurious lifestyle of the very people who sent them to await the D-day.

“It’s only now that it’s dawned on them that perhaps they have been given a long ride to no where”, said the diplomatic source.

According to another highly placed diplomatic source, recent speculations that some goons had been hired by some people sympathetic to the NPP from Togo to harm the former president, was a calculated ploy to cover up this subversive plan hatched by the former security capos to cover their own tracks.

The Past While not ruling out the possibility of Rawlings own past haunting him, the diplomatic source said “the main objective for sending the soldiers in disguise to Togo and Equitorial Guinea, was to enable them to come and stage a possible violent overthrow of the ruling civilian administration and to send wrong signals that save the Rawlings’ (P)NDC regimes, the country’s civilian administrations are not capable of maintaining the stability of the state.

The source insinuated that it is preposterous to assume that a serious assassin would advertise his ploy on the Internet (world wide web) unless it was meant to either intimidate or threaten.

Meanwhile, security sources contacted by the Daily Guide say that they would not relent in their efforts to protect the stability of the country and also would not allow any calculated attempts to distract their function of maintaining national security.

The source said the national security apparatus has a responsibility to protect all Ghanaians and would do so without fear or favour.

There have been speculations from former government quarters that some alleged NPP functionaries in Canada have contracted some Togolese security personnel to assassinate former President Rawlings. This fear was confirmed in a publication by the Statesman newspaper last Friday and was also confirmed by Mr. Victor Smith, in various radio interviews subsequently. Posted: 02.10.2002