Rawlings defends business crony accused of 'dubious' contract

"I will defend him any day as one of the most efficient and brilliant minds that I have come across. He was one of the first to go into large-scale farming and the export of pineapples during the revolution. Others did the same but his operations were so efficient that he was doing much better than some of the others. He later secured an aircraft that not only exported his produce but that of other farmers," the former President said.

“Traboulsi… left farming and diversified into cargo handling where his efficiency won him a bid to manage cargo handling at the airport. “His efficiency level was so high we could beat South Africa by 30 minutes in cargo handling operations. Today some want to spoil the names of good people just like we do in our party,” Mr Rawlings said in an obvious reply to Ken Agyapong's allegations. The Assin Central MP on Thursday the former president and his wife of shielding Mr Marwan by using his influence in the Akufo-Addo administration.

He accused the businessman of having a "dubious" contract and preventing the national security from inspecting his cargo.

He alleged that: “Traboulsi Marwan, I hear his best friend is former President Rawlings and former first lady. I don’t care about that. I care about Ghana. And this one even NDC members were so p#ssed (sic) because even in their time the way the guy was throwing his weight about. He has been in the system.”

"He (Traboulsi Marwan) doesn’t even allow National Security to enter his compound …. And we (NPP) are also allowing it to continue because he is Ex President Rawlings close friend.”

“If it is Rawlings these things happen under him, he will kill him. Even Ghanaians he (Rawlings) killed them, they didn’t even commit the crimes this man is committing."

"He (Traboulsi) is Rawlings’ crony, and so what? Rawlings My foot!”, he thundered.