Former President John Dramani Mahama has taken a swipe at private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu after the latter suggested that he (Mahama) should return all the ex gratia paid to him in the past.
Mr. Kpebu made the call following Mr. Mahama’s promise to cancel ex-gratia if he is re-elected.
He described it as silly a silly comment to come from the lawyer.
Addressing supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta region on Saturday, March 4, Mr Mahama said “I said categorically that when we come into office we will cancel ex gratia for the executives because the president is in charge of the executive, so he can cancel it for the executives but then you have to persuade the other arms of government to see that there is no fairness in continuing to pay ourselves ex gratia when the ordinary worker does not receive it, because you are the leaders, you must show by example. If the economy is in crisis why should we continue to take ex gratia when the rest of the public and civil services don’t take it. So, I said categorically that we will cancel exgratia.
“And then somebody who should know better, a lawyer, he said, then I should refund all the ex gratia we took before to show Ghanaians that yes, we are serious about canceling it, he does not even know the principle in our constitution that says that you can’t pass retroactive legislative if you pass legislative today, it does not affect what happened in the past, what he says is a bit silly because it is like saying because we have introduced free SHS all of us should go and get a refund of our school fees that we paid in the past. That is how silly what he is saying is.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
