A former confidant of Jerry John Rawlings has spoken of his ‘torment’ at the hands of the Limann regime after handing over political power to the administration.
Rawlings handed over to the government of Hilla Limann, who had been elected President of the country’s Third Republic in 1979 but promptly reclaimed power two years later in a coup.
Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Citi TV‘s Face To Face, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, who served in the early years of Rawlings’ military administration from 1982 as an informant and the ‘June 4 organiser’ said that despite handing over peacefully and retiring to his farm at Katamanso, Rawlings was consistently hounded by the administration.
“JJ Rawlings went into farming because of boredom. Immediately after handing over to the new government, he and his colleagues were asked to go out to study. The others took the money and left, but he didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t allowed to go back into the airforce. He would go to the farm with people from Tema Newtown, Nungua, Madina and Nima. His main aim was to farm; there were no guns on the farm. He even imported a tractor. When the machine was brought to the country, he brought it to my grandfather and gave it to my brother to use,” he said.