Reports reaching The aL-hAJJ indicates former President Jerry John Rawlings is seething with anger over Senior Policy Adviser and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit, Dr Valarie Sawyerr’s alleged involvement in plots to block his daughter, Dr Zanetor from contesting impending parliamentary elections.
Our investigations at the Ridge and Adjiriganor residences of the former military strongman revealed Mr Rawlings feels stabbed in the back by Madam Valarie Sawyerr, over alleged machinations to prevent Dr Zanetor becoming MP since she declared her intention to contest the November 7 parliamentary election on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.
The NDC founder, a source close to him disclosed, is still struggling to come to terms with why Madam Sawyerr would overlook a long standing relationship that existed between him and her late father, Harry Sawyerr, to work against his daughter.
“To be frank with you, the old man (Jerry Rawlings) is not happy with Valarie Sawyerr. If there is anybody to work against Zanetor, I don’t think it should be Valarie. Her late father and the old man were very good friends to the point that Harry Sawyerr played a critical role in his government. That was why the old man made her late father a Minister in his government and later, Chairman of Council of Elders of the NDC,” the source noted.
The source added that “Valarie owes her present standing in politics to the old man. But for the old man’s affinity to her late father which gave her the opportunity to also warm her way into the NDC through Professor Mills, I doubt if she will find herself in the present position she occupies in government. After all the things that he has done for her family, the best way to pay him back is to work against his daughter.”
Mr Rawlings, The aL-hAJJ gathered, is reported to be complaining to close friends of the former deputy Chief of Staff’s attitude towards his medical trained daughter’s bid to lead the NDC in this year parliamentary elections in the Klottey Korle constituency.
Media reports have alleged Madam Valarie Sawyerr’s complicity in ongoing legal schemes to get the court to disqualify Dr Zanetor Rawlings from representing the NDC in the Klottey Korle constituency.
She is also alleged to have assisted one of the aspirants with funds and logistics in last year’s parliamentary primary of the NDC in a bid to deny Dr Zanetor the opportunity to annex the slot after failed attempts to get the party’s vetting committee to disqualify her.
Even though Madam Sawyerr is reported to have denied nursing ambition to one day contest the Klottey Korle seat, reports are that she had wanted the incumbent MP, Nii Armah Ashietey to contest for the last time and then “bequeath” the post to her for the 2020 elections.
This arrangement was said to be the underlining reason why Dr Zanetor’s decision to the contests the election was fiercely resisted amidst petitions for her disqualification, subsequent legal actions to prevent her from contesting the parliamentary election.
These negative acts against Dr Zanetor, many in the constituency alleged, were funded by Madam Valarie Sawyerr with support from other NDC bigwigs who for some reasons have an axe to grind with the Rawlingses.
This is said to have angered Mr Rawlings who is said to be fuming with rage over the treatments being meted to his daughter by persons who benefited in one way or the other from his benevolence.
Source: The Al-Hajj
