I’m not worth $50m – Rawlings

Former President John Jerry Rawlings has dismissed reports that he is one of the richest Ghanaians with a fortune of 50 million dollars.

Delivering a speech at a durbar to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the June 4 revolution in Accra on Monday, Mr. Rawlings said his fortune is nowhere near that absurd amount adding people deliberately make those claims to make excuses for their ill-acquired wealth.

A website Africa ranking in 2016 ranked the top 10 richest men in Ghana with the former military dictator placed at the 9th position with an estimated net worth of $50 million.

Maverick politician and self-professed guns dealer Kofi Wayo was ranked 10th with $30 million in his bank account.

But the founder of the National Democratic Congress at the June 4 anniversary said the report is a complete fabrication.

“When they are tabling all the billionaires that we have, they put Rawlings at number 9 I think…and they have given me 50 million dollars. Meanwhile, the last man behind me is Kofi Wayo and they gave him 30 million…as for Kofi Wayo, I know he is so broke I believe he may have paid that newspaper to put him there.

“They play these games as a way of whitewashing themselves…the thieves amongst us, so that if Rawlings has 50 million dollars there is nothing wrong with it…If I had it, I would have worked honestly for it but I don’t.

“They have it, the thieves and the honest ones, they want it to be acceptable, they want it to look normal without anybody asking how they came by it,” the 70-year-old former President said amidst cheers from party supporters.