I never coerced Ato Ahwoi to contest Mills – Rawlings fires another salvo

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has rejected an account of his former appointee, Prof. Kwabena Ahwoi, who says the former leader worked against the late President Mills.

In his third response to Prof. Ahwoi, Rawlings said he never tried to raise a candidate against the 2008 NDC presidential candidate Prof John Evans Atta Mills.

In Prof. Ahwoi’s book ‘Working With Rawlings’, the former appointee said the NDC founder pressurised his brother, Ato Ahwoi, to contest Mills in the race for party flagbearer.

“Jerry Rawlings invited Ato to his Ridge residence and prevailed on him to contest the presidential primaries against Prof. Mills. Ato says he was astounded because Jerry knew his relationship with Prof. Mills and also knew the role that he had played in 1996 in convincing Prof. Mills to agree to become his running mate,” that portion of the book reads.

Prof. Ahwoi said this pressure from Rawlings contributed in the deterioration of their relationship because a challenge from Ato Ahwoi would have been a stab in the back of Prof. Atta Mills, who looked up to the Ahwois’.

Photo: Prof. Ahwoi

But in the longer promised response, the NDC founder, for the second time since the book was released, accused Ahwoi of peddling untruths to “paint a denigrating picture of President Rawlings and his colleagues.”

According to the NDC founder, the claim that he tried to coerce Ato Ahwoi to contest Prof. Mills in the 2006 NDC presidential primaries is ‘bizarre’.

It was NDC financier Eddie Annan; former Communications Minister Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and former Defence Minister Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu who contested Prof. Mills.

In Prof.Ahwoi’s book, he said Eddie Annan had told him, it was Rawlings who urged him to contest Prof. Mills in 2006.

In that election, all three challengers suffered a resounding defeat to Prof. Mills.

Former president Jerry Rawlings said it was Prof. Atta Mills who told him privately that he was not well enough to contest the 2008 presidential elections.

“After his landslide victory in the 2006 NDC Primaries, candidate Mills travelled to South Africa for medical treatment. While in South Africa, Mills put a call through to President Rawlings and indicated his desire to forego the candidature for the presidential election owing to his medical state.”

“Following this conversation, President Rawlings held a meeting with some leading members of the Party to express concern about the state of candidate Mills’ health and urged them to identify recognisable party members who could step in. President Rawlings is on record as having suggested that some known personalities in the party should position themselves to demonstrate that the NDC had enough presidential material.”

“Urging some members of the Party to position themselves for a potential contest, was in no way an attempt to undermine, sabotage, betray or malign Professor Mills as the author shamelessly infers in his book.

“More disappointing is the impression created that he was and is unaware of that critical phone call from Professor Mills (while in South Africa) to President Rawlings. It is rather telling of him to deny this well-known crisis merely in his bid to deride and denigrate the genuine efforts of former President Rawlings to arrest a crisis,” the lengthy statement reads.