The Office of former President John Agyekum Kufuor has described as untrue, a claim by ex-President Jerry Rawlings that the New Patriotic Party administration was paying a journalist an amount of 10,000 dollars monthly to do the government’s bidding.
A statement by Frank Agyekum, spokesperson at the Office of former President J.A. Kufuor, said it was not surprise that Jerry “Rawlings could not name the said journalist because no such person exists.”
Even though ex-President Rawlings did not mention the name of the regime or president under which the alleged “soli contract” occurred, several references and media reports linked the claims he made in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou at the International Catholic Union of the Press to the Kufuor administration.
“Former President Rawlings again lied that former President Kufuor’s administration took “over all the lands belonging to the traditional chiefs and the government and built huge mansions all over the place,” the statement said, explaining that the “only intention of President Rawlings in stating such obvious untruths is to disparage the hard won image of former President Kufuor, both locally and internationally.”
Below is the full text from the Office of President Kufuor
Rawlings lied in Ouagadougou
Accra, 20 – 09 – 10:
The attention of the Office of former President John Agyekum Kufuor has been drawn to false remarks made about his administration by former President Jerry John Rawlings at a recent international forum in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and responds as follows:
It is not true that under former President Kufuor a journalist was paid $10,000 a month to ‘corrode the sanctity of truth.’ Unsurprisingly, former President Rawlings could not name the said journalist because no such person exists.
The $350 a month former President Rawlings was receiving was what was prescribed under the Greenstreet report which he as President instituted.
Former President Kufuor as then sitting President was also receiving the same amount until 2005 when the Chinery-Hesse Committee upgraded it to Gh¢4,500 a month. That is how much both former Presidents as well as the sitting President are currently being paid. Former President Rawlings was paid all his arrears from 2001 when the new salary scheme was effected.
Former President Rawlings again lied that former President Kufuor’s administration took “over all the lands belonging to the traditional chiefs and the government and built huge mansions all over the place.”
This can never be true as no such thing happened under the administration of former President Kufuor. Former President Rawlings cannot have prove any such thing and we challenge him to come up with the evidence.
The only intention of President Rawlings in stating such obvious untruths is to disparage the hard won image of former President Kufuor, both locally and internationally.
This Office condemns the acts of former President Rawlings in no uncertain terms, especially, because he has persisted in like manner throughout the eight years of the Kufuor administration.
It is unbecoming and reckless of a former Head of State to mount international platforms only to deride his successor with baseless allegations as in the process he also taints the image of the country.
Signed: Frank Agyekum
Spokesperson, Office of former President JA Kufuor
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