Former president John Mahama has described calls by a private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu for him to refund previous ex-gratia he has taken as “silly.”
During his campaign launch in the Volta Region last week, Mahama said he will scrap the controversial ex-gratia paid to Article 71 office holders if he becomes president in 2025.
“The payment of ex-gratia of the executive under Article 71 will be scrapped,” Mahama said last Thursday.
In a TV discussion on Saturday, Kpebu said: “Mahama should do introspection and return it [ex-gratia] as a sign of good faith, that once I have returned the money I am committed.”
Addressing supporters of the NDC in the Volta Region on Saturday (4 March), Mahama said: “If the economy is in crisis, why should we continue to take ex-gratia when the rest of the public and civil service does not take it?”
“And then somebody who should know better, a lawyer [Martin Kpebu] said I should refund all the ex-gratia I took before to show Ghanaians that we [NDC] are serious,” Mahama added.
“He doesn’t even know the principle in our constitution that says you cannot pass retroactive legislation… and what he says is a bit silly, because it’s like saying because we have introduced Free SHS, all of us should get a refund of our fees we paid in the past, that’s how silly it is,” Mahama said.
Watch the video below:
Does the NPP support my call for the scrapping of the payment of ex gratia to members of the executive or not? #BringGhanaTogether #TheGhanaWeWant pic.twitter.com/3LwKvlKZTq
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) March 5, 2023
Ridicule
Meanwhile, Kamal-Deen Abdulai, a deputy communications director for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said former president Mahama’s promise to scrap ex-gratia if elected president only opens him up for ridicule because he couldn’t forfeit his own payment.
Appearing on Asaase 99.5 Accra’s news analysis show, The Forum, on Saturday (4 March), Abdulai said: “Having lacked the prudence to even let go of his own emoluments and then making a moral argument of scrapping it (ex-gratia) when given power only opens the former president up for ridicule.”
“I think that if Mahama had stated that with the current state of the economy he’s letting go of his ex-gratia then follows with scrapping it when given power, that would make sense to anybody listening.”
Abdulai added: “But with him not showing the prudence to let go of that which he is being paid and is enjoying then turning to claim that he will scrap it makes no sense.”
Watch the full programme in the attached video clip below:
Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra
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