The Untold Story

In an amazing event that got former Acting General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Bede Ziedeng, petrified and scared of what could happen to him next, former President Rawlings ignored the presence of top executives of the main opposition party and held the scrotum of his party man through his trousers with pin-point exactness, as his hands deftly searched his testes.

Within seconds and with the expertise of what some say could rival that of a great marksman, his fingers primed and squeezed the balls of his then party loyalist. Perplexed, scared and in excruciating pain, the acting General Secretary stood still, unable to scream or move with his face contorted and his eyes nearly bulging out.

But before the former President could go on further after what sources put at almost two minutes, former Member of Parliament for Krowor, Hon. Joshua Alibi walked up and smacked the hand of the former president off Bede?s balls.With the assistance of ex-Defence Minister, Colonel (rtd) E. K. T. Donkor, sources say Mr. Alabi drew the former President aside. Both men were later to console Bede and enquired as to what he had done to earn the anger of the former president for him to react to his presence in the manner.

Bede couldn?t tell except to wonder, though he was later to suffer other ignominious fate, including an incident at the NDC?s Eastern Regional delegate?s congress at the Eredec hotel in Koforidua which was incidentally confirmed by him in an interview with the Daily Dispatch.At the meeting in Koforidua, the former President, who incidentally is also the Founder of the NDC, obliged delegates and supporters of the party a rare performance of his attacks on Bede.

What got the former President?s goat at that meeting was the claim by Mr. Ziedeng that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) rigged the 2004 elections and that the NDC had dismantled the NPP?s rigging machinery and that the key to the NDC?s victory in the 2008 elections was in his pocket.

After Bede had finished topping up his claims with an assertion that he would release the key to victory in 2008, a furious ex-President Rawlings took his turn to deliver some choice words on him to the NDC gathering. He told the delegates to ignore the foolish tantrums of his Acting General Secretary, who was also campaigning at the time to be returned to office as the Substantive General Secretary.?Don?t mind Bede Ziedeng. What he is saying is senseless and foolish. He does not know you hold the key. Speaking in Twi, he continued, ?Nea Bede Ziedeng ka no ye nkwaseasem, nyansa biara nni mu?.

At the time, though Bede confirmed the story surrounding his insults to the Daily Dispatch, he refused to elaborate. Interestingly he was equally unwilling to elaborate on the issue surrounding why his balls were squeezed by Rawlings during the party?s campaign trail, when reached. When this paper chanced on the former NDC chief scribe present a serious activist of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and told him the Gye Nyame Concord would run the story, Mr. Ziedeng rather pleaded with the paper to drop the story. His fears were that it may be mistaken that he is the source of the story and hard-core supporters of the former president may vent their anger on him and harm him.

Though he admitted the incident, he said he?d rather have his peace and move on in his near endeavour. Significantly, there have been countless speculations that the man who presided over the affairs of the country for almost 19 years sometimes gets physical on members of his government and party activists.

It?s the kind of experience that those who may have been victims of would rather keep quiet on, with speculations that the late Major-General Colonel Mensah Woode, former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey and former Deputy Tourism Minister, Owuraku Amofa are the only people to have ever stood up to some physical blows on them.