You might have heard about or probably witnessed the numerous atrocities committed by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) military juntas both led by former president, Jerry John Rawlings.
But what you did not know is that the leader of those military juntas had planned to even commit more atrocious acts in the name of sanitizing the governance system of the country.
According to former Energy Minister and leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Boakye Agyarko, the former military ruler, after successfully staging the June 4 Revolution, had intended to execute every citizen of the country, who was above 40 years of age.
Mr. Agyarko, who said he was at the University of Ghana at the time, revealed that the military junta, following the uprising, marched them (students) on to the streets of Accra in military uniforms to galvanize public support for its action.
He recounted that, while they were on the streets to drum up support for the revolution, the leader of the junta, Rawlings, who had addressed them, disclosed that the junta had intended to eliminate all citizens above age 40, claiming that the said age group were corrupt and morally decayed and needed to be eliminated in order to prevent them from influencing the youngsters.
But the former Energy Minister, who described his involvement in the street march as foolish, noted that the former president failed to consider the grievousness and the implication of his intended action.
He asserted that such intention was not only evil but would have set a treacherous precedent, which Mr. Rawlings himself and other youngsters at the time could have suffered when they got to that age bracket.
“I was a student here (University of Ghana) when Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings ceased power the first time. I was one of the unfortunate young men who were put in flight lieutenant uniforms to accompany the soldiers into town to drum up support for the coup d’état. Foolishly, I went. But you know what Jerry Rawlings was telling us, he wanted everybody above the age of 40 to be eliminated, forgetting that he was 36 and that within a short time, he was going to hit the age of elimination,” he stated at an event at University of Ghana.
Jerry John Rawlings, who was then a junior military officer, led an uprising, on June 4, 1979, against the Supreme Military Council 2 junta led by General Alfred Akuffo.
Following the overthrow of the SMC 2 regime, Rawlings ordered the execution of some senior members of the junta, whom he described as corrupt. He justified their killing, claiming that it was necessary to avert an imminent implosion.
But they were not the only ones, who suffered the high-handedness of Mr. Rawlings and his junta, who appeared bloodthirsty at the time. Ordinary Ghanaians were tortured and killed over allegations of hoarding of goods, contractions of loans and unexplained wealth among others.
Mr. Rawlings rode on the mantra, Probity and Accountability to ascend to the highest office of the land and was merciless with people he considered corrupt.
But while in office, he miserably failed the probity and accountability test as corruption was rampant in his government and in some instances, involving himself.
He was alleged to have been involved in shady dealings with one of the most corrupt African presidents, Sani Abacha and had received some monies from the disgraced the Nigerian leader.
He, however, denied receiving any money from Mr. Abacha and caused the arrest of Journalists, who had exposed his shady dealings with the then Nigerian head of state.
But in the latter days of his life, long after he had exited power, he confessed receiving money from Mr. Abacha but insisted that he did not receive such amount as had been reported by the media.
