Richard Ahiagba
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) says former President John Dramani Mahama lied that government is refusing to provide him with his entitlement as former leader.
According to the party, former President Mahama has been enjoying all the privileges due him as a former Ghanaian leader of the country.
The party indicates that the former president claim is to exploits the sympathies of unsuspecting Ghanaians as he wants to once again contest the next general elections on the ticket of his political party.
Recently, the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress yelled that he pays for things like water, electricity, rent, fuel, medical care, and plane tickets himself as well as his staff.
“I receive only my monthly pension like President Kufuor, and President Rawlings was receiving [it] before he died. That is all I get.
“I pay the electricity bill for my house and my office, I pay the water bill for my house and my office. I live in my own accommodation so the State does not pay me anything for accommodation.
“They haven’t given me an office, I rent an office in East Cantonments, I pay the rent myself, I pay my own fuel, the State doesn’t give me fuel, I pay my own domestic staff, I pay my own medical bills, I pay my own air tickets when I travel,” Mr. Mahama told TV3’s on Tuesday September 13.
However, addressing a press conference in Accra on Wednesday September 14, 2022, Richard Ahiagba, Communication Director of NPP indicated that “The former President has told blatant lies. We have assembled relevant documents that prove that the former President lied and that, contrary to his claims, he has been indeed been enjoying privileges due him.”
“We did not want to share these private documents with the public, but they are already out there, so we will share them.”
He continued that “the conduct of former President Mahama threatens our democracy, peace and security. So, the question is, what does former President Mahama wants to achieve with these needless falsehoods? Could it be so that he can pretend to champion the clamour for the repeal of Article 71? Evidence of this rather unholy politics of former President Mahama abound.
“Former President Mahama’s denial that he is actively accessing his emolument benefits simply exploits the sympathies of unsuspecting Ghanaians. There is no record anywhere that former President Mahama has been renounced or that the government has denied former President Mahama his emolument or entitlement. These bizarre and downright false claims by the former President speak to a grand electoral strategy driven by desperation and deception.
“You recall that on 22nd October 2020, Mahama promised to grant galamseyers amnesty if he won the election for President. Now contrast this amnesty position with what former President Mahama said on the Ghana Tonight show about President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo needing to resign because he vouched to fight galamsey, whatever the cost.”
By Vincent Kubi