Beware of 419 people in your midst – Rawlings

Former President J.J. Rawlings has warned the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be wary of self-seeking leading members, whose sole aim is to enrich themselves to the detriment of the party.

He says the elements include party executives who have been subjecting him to public ridicule for some time now due to his aversion for their greed.

Though the founder of the NDC stopped short of putting out names, he described them as corrupt people who have been on a quest to tarnish his reputation with constant verbal abuse. He therefore called on party sympathiser to be on the lookout lest they are taken through “a political 419 in the party.

Speaking at a durbar in the Upper West Regional capital of Wa, to mark the 38th Anniversary of the June 4 uprising on Sunday, Mr Rawlings blamed the late Professor Evans Atta Mills, for looking on while some elements within the NDC made many untruthful claims against him.

“When the time to pour poison on me started, they made up stories against me. I was disgusted but the one who angered me the most was Professor Mills who knew the truth but kept quiet for this poison to burn me….I was fraudulent. During our last campaign some character, somebody called the son of domestication, a crazy man I guess aided by some of the craziest executives in the party tried to also malign me. Our party invited such a character on our last campaign platform”, he said.

The anniversary celebration which was under the theme, “Restoring the Values of Probity, Accountability and Truth in Contemporary Governance” was attended by several Ministers in the past Mahama government including the Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, former Defence Minister Benjamin Kunbour, former Trade Minister Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah, former Transport Minister Mike Hammah, and former Health Minister Joseph Yileh Chireh.