Opinions of Sunday, 21 February 2010

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

BNI, Investigate Rawlings And Yaa Beauty.

Sarpong, Justice

Our nascent democracy which is not out of diapers yet is under assault and a dark cloud of dictatorship is on the horizon by proxy .The 'Jack booted' tactics used by our National Security outfit to arrest a Panelist. Nana Darkwa on a radio programme because he accused Rawlings as the source of the inferno that gutted his house should be condemned by all peace loving Ghanaians. This 'gun-ho' tactics reminiscent of the PNDC days if not checked would bring anarchy to our country.
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When did it become a crime to accuse People in Ghana? When it is Rawlings? Didn't Rawlings accuse NPP of killing 34 women without providing any proof? Didn't Rawlings accuse President Kuffour of killing Ya Na and Mobilla? Didn't Rawlings accuse Kuffour of corruption without any proof?
Didn't Victor Smith accuse President Kuffour of being in cahoot with a Nigerian businessman and stealing billions of dollars from oil deals?
Didn't one 'Dr' Asemfoforo accuse President Kuffour of many crimes without even being arrested?
What has changed, folks? Now NDC, the son of PNDC is ruling the country and the same dictatorial powers Rawlings employed to cow the country is in vogue again.Â

Rawlings started this false accusations against others without any proof and now that he is being accused, his drug induced acolytes can't contain themselves, WHAT KIND OF JUSTICE ARE WE PRACTISING IN GHANA WHERE ONE MURDERER IS ABOVE THE LAW but everybody else is supposed to obey the law.? NDCians are saying freedom of speech has its limit, which is true but when did they learn that? When they were accusing Kuffour of all kinds of crimes, were they aware freedom of speech has limits? Rawlings is reaping what he sowed and what is happening to him now is poetic justice and he should brace himself for more.
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Why is it that People believe the inferno at Rawlings residence was not by accident of faulty wiring or lightening striking the house during a rain storm? The spate of fires that have razed down many government buildings and market places within a very short time of this NDC administration gives credence to the`Arsonist speculation being bounded around and if we have to believe this is the work of an arsonist, then the question becomes, WHY? WHO?
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Why should anybody want to cause harm to the Rawlings family? The cynical view being expressed by the public as the source of this fire is understandable and if it was Rawlings enemies that burnt his house down, then how did they get to his living room to start the fire? We know from the initial report of this fire from the occupants of that house that, the fire started from the living room quarters of the Ex President. How did the Rawlings enemies get access to his living room? Where were the bevy of Rawlings security men? Where were the big dogs that patrol this house as if it is Fort Knox? Who stands to benefit for the burning down of the house?
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I will try to answer some of these questions and lay the blame of this fire at the foot of the Rawlings household and not an outsider. According to an eyewitness account, this fire was still raging at 4:30 AM and no fire truck was on the scene when he got there. "An eyewitness, one of the first to arrive at the scene, spoke to DAILY GUIDE and said he was jogging in the area around 4:30 am when he noticed fire burning in the residence.
“To my horror, I realized it was the residence of the former president. I therefore curved off the main road and went towards the residence and noticed that both gates were open and these huge dogs were running helter-skelter."
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Now, compare what the Eyewitness said to what Kofi Adams, Rawlings spokesman said too."When he addressed the media afterwards, Kofi Adam, the ex-president’s spokesperson, said the fire started between 1.00 and 2.00am but firefighters reached the location at about 3.00am." Where did Kofi Adams get this information about what time the fire started and when the fire service arrived at the scene from? More likely from Yaa Beauty, Rawlings wife. Why are they trying to distort the timeline of this crime scene if the fire is the work of an arsonist? If we believe Kofi Adams as the fire starting around 1 or 2 AM, why is he trying to make it look like the family immediately called the fire service when an eyewitness jogging around the area 4:30 AM said there was no fire truck at the scene when he got there?
"One of the men in the compound was trying to restrain the dogs from fleeing outside, and at this time, some policemen and soldiers arrived on the scene as well as a fire tender."Â So if the eyewitness account which I believe more than Kofi Adams is right, then why is Kofi Adams trying to distort the timeline? How is it that it took four hours for the fire service to get there? Was the fire service called immediately or somebody wanted to make sure this building was completely burnt and therefore did not call the fire immediately? This is the reason why Kofi Adams is trying to place the fire service at the scene at 3:00AM when they actually got there at after 4:30AM.
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The second question I have for the Rawlings family is this. How did they manage to get the keys to their numerous bulletproof cars and moved them from the path of the fire? We all know if you are awake by a fire, maybe they have fire alarms in the house, your first reaction as a human nature would be to get away from the fire as quickly as you can but not the Rawlingses, they were not disoriented, cool and collected. Yaa Beauty was able to take off his nightgown and put on a dress and then have his faculty intact to go and retrieve keys to their six to ten cars and then managed to get his security guys to move those cars from the path of the inferno. According to the same eyewitness, the Rawlingses cars were busily being moved away from the path of the fire.“I asked if Mr. Rawlings was inside the house but no one answered. A man was desperately trying to move cars from the path of the raging fire." The question then is, what other valuables were moved
before this fire started?
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Looking at the skeletal remains of this building, there is not much debris of household items to be seen.What ammunition and other military material were being stored at this house? The eyewitness account shows there were loud noises mimicking of ammunitions going off. “Suddenly we were startled with sounds of explosion, like bullets, explosives or a bomb, ‘pow, pow, pow’, then one big ‘booom’ and with this, we all took to our heels - policemen, soldiers, security guys, we all fled for dear lifeThe pow, pow, went on for about 5 to 10 minutes and I once again asked if bombs were exploding and if the former first family were safe, but answers were not forthcoming. “Eventually, the explosions subsided, and then I noticed that Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and two girls came outside to the gate, stood for a while and went back inside”.

Rawlings burnt Makola market down rendering hundreds of traders to become paupers by depriving them the source of their livelihood and some children of traders dropping out of school because their parents couldn't afford to pay their school fees at that time. There were some traders who committed suicides because they couldn't cope with the poor situation Rawlings animalistic decision put them through and by legerdemain and poetic justice, fire has consumed their so called murdering memoribilia.
Now why would the Rawlings burn down their own house with their valuables still inside? The question is, is there any evidence aftermath of this fire to homologate that there were any valuables in that house before it was torched?


We should not lose sight that, two days before this fire, Alhaji Bature, a prominent NDC scribe who was close to Rawlings accused him Rawlings of being a murderer and responsible for the massacre of 250 people. The next day, on the 13th of Feb., Kwesi Pratt, another Rawlings pal has this to say as reported at my joyonline and Peacefmonline;

"Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings’ recent outburst against President John Evans Atta Mills has attracted a robust and biting response from Kwesi Pratt Jnr, who rubbished his former pal as a man with Messianic illusions, virtually telling him to go to hell.
Having stopped raising the issue of the hordes of persons who went missing during the tenure of Mr. Rawlings, Mr. Pratt appeared to have reignited the subject when he referred to his former pal as a murderer who is responsible for the disappearance of over 250 Ghanaians."


Folks, before this earth shattering breaking news from a source who ought to know about Rawlings atrocities could hit the newstand and radio stations that could have attracted a large audience and given the world a second look at this murderer and maybe pave the way for his eventual hauling to the Hague to answer for his genocide, within twenty four hours, his house was on fire and this news never did see the light of day. Was the fire at Rawlings house deliberately set to bury the Kwesi Pratt earth shattering revealations? This fire needs to be investigated but I don't even trust this administration to do a good forensic fire investigation knowing how this Mills administration has treated this murderer with kid gloves.

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas.Â