The National Democratic Congress' running mate has distanced the party's campaign from allegations made by ex-President Rawlings. At a public forum in Accra on Thursday, the ex-president accused the ruling New Patriotic Party government of being behind high profile murders in the country, including that of Rocco Frimpong, the Deputy Ghana Commercial Bank manager. He also accused the government of distributing weapons to supporters to unleash mayhem ahead of the December polls. But the party’s vice presidential hopeful John Dramani Mahama, said the ex-president’s allegations do not fall within the message of peace the NDC under the leadership of Prof. John Evans Atta Mills is selling to the electorates. “It does not fall into the campaign strategy; there is no doubt about that. Prof. Mills is the leader, and we have a strategy we are following.” Speaking to Joy Fm’s Evans Mensah at Midday News, the vice presidential candidate said the NDC is looking forward to a peaceful election, and has therefore embarked on a message of peace to convince electorates. Asked why the ex-president was included in their three-prong campaign strategy if his message was at variance with the core message, Hon John Mahama was blunt in his response: “You don’t expect us to tie him up, and put a gag in his mouth. That will be against his human rights.” The vice presidential candidate advised the media to focus attention on the views of the party’s flag-bearer and not the allegations by the ex-president, explaining that he was personally at the meeting (not rally) with party supporters when Rawlings passed the comments and he found them not too palatable. [Listen to excerpts of Mahama's interview in the attached audio] Story by Nathan Gadugah