The former Operations Manager of the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Charles Owusu, has berated the leadership of his party, the New Patriotic Party ((NPP), for getting involved in the brouhaha surrounding the ex-gratia of former President John Dramani Mahama.
He said that he is surprised that the party’s leaders are responding to the claims being made by the former president that he (Mahama) is not receiving his full retirement benefits because it has nothing to do with them.
Speaking in a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Owusu added that there are government agencies in charge of the former president’s emoluments, and if his claims are wrong, they are the ones supposed to come out and deny them.
“One thing I don’t understand is that my brothers in the NPP are the ones responding to the former president’s claims that he is not receiving some of the benefits he is entitled to under Article 71. The party is responding by saying he receives all the benefits.
“And I ask myself what it (the former president benefits) has got to do with the party. What has that got to do with the party with all due respect to my brothers in the part’s office?
“We know that there is an office responsible for this. And so has the office responsible given the benefits to the former president or not. And even if they have not, don’t we have the Information Ministry that is supposed to respond to this? This has nothing to do with the party; it has everything to do with the government,” he said in Twi.
The Director of Communications for the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, who previously stated that he had evidence that the government pays the office rent of the former president, has said that the government has not given Mahama an office accommodation because he wants an office that is currently being used for another purpose.
Former President John Dramani Mahama, while responding to claims by NPP chairman for the Bono Region, Kwame Baffoe Abronye, that he (Mahama) has been paid millions in lieu of ex-gratia payments, disclosed that he is not fully benefitting from emoluments he is entitled to as a former Head of State.
He said that all he receives from the government currently is his monthly pension and that all other bills the state must cater for have not been attended to since he left office in 2017.
In an exclusive interview with TV3, Mahama said he is currently footing a myriad of bills such as his light bills, fuel, office rent, and travel bills.
“They haven’t given me an office; I rent an office in East Cantonments, I pay the rent myself, I pay for my own fuel; the state doesn’t give me fuel. I pay my own domestic staff; I pay my own medical bills. I pay for my own air tickets when I travel,” he added.
Watch the interview in the video below:
ghanaweb.com
