GCPP to petition EOCO over Rawlings’ $2m from Abacha

The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), is set to petition the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), to investigate former President Jerry John Rawlings over his confession that he accepted some monies from late Nigerian Leader, General Abacha.

Ex-president Rawlings admitted in an interview with Nigeria’s Guardian Newspaper that he had received the money from Nigeria’s leader at the time, although he denied the amount was five million dollars as alleged initially.

The GCPP Flag bearer, Henry Herbert Lartey. told Citi News that the former President, being a champion of probity and accountability must allow himself to undergo investigations as a test of his stance against corruption following his admission.

One of the numerous questions he had was if the money was connected to the killing of a Nigerian environmental journalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who raised concerns about the activities of petroleum giant, Shell, in Nigeria.

“Is that why Abacha gave our former President 2 million which we don’t know about.? Was it 10 million, was it 100 million, was it 50 million, we don’t know. We want him to come and tell us. Was the money for him personally because he supported Abacha or was it for Ghana,” he asked.

“This is our former Head of State. This is a champion of probity and accountability. I am sure that he will let us have this information,” Mr. Lartey added.

Background

Mr. Rawlings while speaking to the Guardian Newspaper in Nigeria, admitted receiving the money from the President of Nigeria in 1998, but said it was $2 million and not $5 million as alleged.

The Minority in Parliament then criticized the acceptance of the money, and called for a Parliamentary probe.

Mr. Owusu-Agyeman, who was then the Minority Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, was at the forefront of the calls for a parliamentary probe.

He recalled that, “When I moved the motion in parliament, amidst all odds, I was convinced that indeed something like this had happened so I am happy about it.”

In 1998 when the matter of the alleged bribe money from Nigeria broke, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), founded by Jerry Rawlings, put up a strong defence for him when the matter was brought to the floor of Parliament for investigations to be conducted by the then Speaker of Parliament, D. F. Annan.

But the Minority-led the campaign was shot down because the Speaker had ruled at the time that the Minority did not bring enough evidence to support their call for investigations.

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana