A former deputy Chief of Staff under the erstwhile NDC administration, Dr Valerie Esther Sawyerr, has pointed out that the main opposition party never disrespected former President John Agyekum Kufuor as does the ruling NPP government to Mr Mahama.
According to her, the main opposition party treated the entitlements of the former NPP leader and the head of state with dignity.
Dr Valerie Esther Sawyerr’s statement follows the recent back and forth between the NDC and the NPP over John Dramani Mahama’s emoluments as an ex-president.
Expressing her frustrations over what has become the talk of the town, the former deputy chief of staff charged the NPP government to ask their own [former President Kufuor] about NDC’s treatment meted out to him.
“Ask Papa (President Kufour) if we ever disrespected him in this way. Indeed, he accepted an office, which we fully furnished.
“He labelled it as his temporary office and directed that we get him a permanent office. He inspected the location of the permanent office himself and confirmed that he liked it.
“He sent us architectural drawings, and we built it from scratch to his specifications, despite a tight financial situation,” Dr Valerie Sawyerr unravelled.
The Senior Policy Advisor to Mr Mahama could not fathom why representatives of the incumbent government would propagate falsehood about the former president’s emoluments when Mr Mahama has exposed that his entitlements have not been fulfilled.
Such utterances, she believes, “provoke comparisons that disturb the well-deserved peace of our ex-presidents”.
Dr Sawyerr continued to challenge the Chief of Staff Frema Osei-Opare, or any of her representatives to come up with “the so-called evidence that government pays for John Mahama’s office at Cantonments.”
In this regard, she suggested to Madam Frema to consider coming out with the truth to restore her reputation that is being dented day-by-day by her “failure to execute” because the allegations are untrue.
“Also, what are these rants and raves on an alleged GHS14 million supposed to have been paid to JM in 2013 as ex gratia?
“Documents on the release of funds for ex gratia can easily be located at the Ministry of Finance. That is where the funds are released from. There will also be copies in the Chief of Staff’s records and/or the records of the Chief Director of the Office of the President,” she counselled.
