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Three private Ghanaian citizens have asked the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to review the payment of allowances to past and present presidential spouses between 2009 and 2016 during their husbands’ tenure.
They demand that all this money be repaid by the beneficiaries, in particular Ms. Lordina Mahama.
According to them, Mrs. Ernestina Naadu Mills and Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur should be excused because they are widows.
Mr. Keskine Owusu Poku, Mr. Victor Osei-Poku and Mr. Michael Essel-Mills, who say they are interested in governance, politics, constitutionalism and the rule of law, are particularly interested in the payments made specifically from 2009 to 2016, since, according to the petition, “the practice of remunerating” the first lady in office and wife of the vice-president, “began after the 4th legislature of the 4th Republic”.
The petitioners therefore believe that the presidential wives (Ernestina Naadu Mills, Lordina Mahama and Matilda Amissah-Arthur) who fall in 2009 and 2016 must also repay their allowances.
They said, however, that since Ernestina Naadu Mills and Matilda Amissah-Arthur were widowed, both are “safely covered by the humanitarian principle” instituted and maintained by successive governments.
However, they do not make this concession for Mrs. Lordina Mahama, whose husband is still alive.
“The only odd one is Mrs. Lordina Mahama, who served for the 8 years of the Mills-Mahama-Amissa-Arthur administration from 2009 to 2016”.
“We contend that there is no legal basis for including them and any related activity in the budget of the president’s office,” the petitioners said.
“Second, the office of the president is a public office and at no time was the first and second ladies’ portfolios a department of the president’s office. It is therefore untenable to advance taxpayers’ money intended for the president’s office to a first or second lady, ”they added.
They want CHRAJ to:
a. Investigate the legal merits of paying indemnities to the wives of incumbent presidents and vice-presidents, and demand reimbursement if deemed inappropriate;
b. Investigate a possible conflict of interest in determining the amount paid as compensation to the first and second ladies at the time of payment;
vs. A disclosure of the total amount paid to all first and second seated ladies (on an individual basis) from 2009 to 2021; and
re. Make orders and recommendations correlative to state review.
— classfm
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