Public Agenda (Accra)
24 November 2008
Accra — Writing from his Toronto base, Felix Odartey-Willington, son of late Major General Neville Odartey-Willington, has asked ex-President Jerry John Rawlings to spare him and his family the pains of reminding them about the atrocious killing of their father.
Felix Odartey-Willington said he felt compelled this time to respond to Rawlings' recent comments about his father "because Rawlings seems intent on using the heinous killing of my father as cheap political propaganda, and as a means to achieve political rehabilitation."
"It is also bizarre that Rawlings, after several years at the helm of this country, finds it necessary to tell Kwaku Ananse stories about why he used to buy food on credit during his days as a young air force officer. Indeed, in times past, Rawlings used his food-crediting practices as an illustration of the hardships that he claimed necessitated his bloody coup in 1979. Yet, perhaps it is helpful to learn from Rawlings' recent confessions that he and his confederates were willing to shed blood simply because of a perceived insult by my father."
In a statement sent to Public Agenda, an obviously charged Felix Odartey-Willington noted that while Rawlings' comments could be dismissed as one of his usual "petulant attention-seeking rants, these recent representations are frighteningly consistent with the posture of his party as a whole. Indeed his party religiously celebrates the June 4th and 31st December bloodbaths and the legacies of these horrendous events. And Rawlings' despicable comments about my father have been repeated by other leading members of his party such as Samuel Nuamah Donkor who should know better."
Rawlings and his cohorts, the Toronto based lawyer observed, have profited handsomely from their bad deeds and should be content with that. He thus finds it an irony that his father, "who could have effectively defended his honour " is not alive "precisely because of the senseless violence unleashed by Rawlings in 1979."
Felix Odartey-Willington equally finds it ironic that "Rawlings and his confederates today have the benefit of the courts and mass media to defend themselves, and to reproduce an ideology of violence and hate. They should leave my father's memory alone."
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