Former President Jerry Rawlings has defended his government’s decision to set up the Aveyime rice project for which three former public officials have been jailed. Mr Rawlings says the project was aimed at reducing reliance on imported rice. In an interview with SABC during his recent visit to South Africa, the former President said the conviction of the three former public officials is a manifestation of a political and class war taking place in Ghana.
”They were jailed on the premise that there was willful dissipation of the country’s resources but the point is that there was no willful dissipation, nor was there an intent to do any such thing”.
The three officials who worked to facilitate the project are serving various sentences between two and fours years. Jerry Rawlings says their trial and conviction was not fair.
”The government back home has its own agenda…What is going on is a political war and not a legal affair. It is a class war”.
In his first public reaction since the conviction of the three, Jerry Rawlings explained that it was his administration that first detected some fraudulent actions of Juliet Cotton and reported to the American authorities. The former President referred to the conviction of Mrs Cotton and the ruling by a US court that the former government officials were victims of Mrs Cotton’s fraudulent deals and wondered why they were jailed.
Former President Rawlings says the former government believed in the success of the project since it would have reduced rice imports by 100 million dollars. According to him, the reasons for initiating the project are still valid since the Aveyime rice project is still viable.
Source: GhanaWeb
