Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings over the weekend made a mockery of attempts by some elements in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make her and former President Jerry John Rawlings unpopular when she asked her pursuers to rather go and face the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo.
�If they are machomen they should get into the boxing ring and fight�, she said, stressing that �Nana is there to face them well.�
Her comments were in reaction to attempts by some members of the Central Regional Executive of the NDC to scuttle a scheduled meeting with party faithful as part of a tour to thank her supporters for the unflinching support given her when she contested but lost the flagbearership position of the NDC to incumbent President Mills at the party�s congress in July this year.
She was scheduled to meet the people at the Cape Coast Town Hall; but even before she could make her way to the place, a group of heavily-built men (machomen) had taken over the hall and locked it up, to ostensibly prevent the meeting from taking place.
The thugs claimed they had been given instructions not to allow the meeting to take place, but did not tell on whose instructions they were acting, thereby resulting in a heated argument between them and the Konadu supporters.
A team of policemen dispatched to the place to maintain law and order had a hell of a time containing the standoff since the machomen were defiant.
The police had to even go into negotiations with them before they eventually made way for sanity to prevail.
When she finally got the opportunity to speak with the party faithful, Mrs Rawlings asked them to remain resolute and not allow themselves to be cowed into fear since they were all stakeholders in the party.
She however advised those behind the drama to do the right thing and stop doing things that would further deepen the existing cracks in the party.
In the face of these series of intimidations, arrests and attacks on her family and members of her support group, the Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), Mrs Rawlings, who is also the President of the 31st December Women�s Movement (DWM), a virtual women�s wing of the ruling party, said she remained resolute and unperturbed.
She noted that it was high-time those behind these machinations in the NDC reserved their energies for the battle ahead, referring to the 2012 general elections.
Members of FONKAR had accused the Central Regional Minister and the region�s Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Ama Benyiwa Doe and Bernard Allotey Jacobs respectively of having a hand in the incident.
Operations Director of the group, Ernest Owusu-Bempah told Accra-based Peace FM: �If this is the peace President Mills has been touting himself with, then I�m sorry to say that his integrity has been tainted and the �asomdweehene� accolade soiled with mud�When we probed into the matter, we got reliable information that it was Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe and Mr. Allotey Jacobs who sponsored the sad event.�
For this reason, he said, �I now believe the Wikileaks reports which revealed that there is a calculated attempt by President Mills to snatch and reduce the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings in the NDC�, warning, �We will match them boot for boot.�
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