No need to pay huge ex gratia to people who volunteered to serve our poor country – Togbe Afede explains why he rejected GHS365k
The Agbobomefia of Asogli, Togbe Afede XIV who was in the news last week for returning GHS365, 392.67 paid as ex gratia to him for serving as a member of the Council of State from 2017 to 2021 has come out to explain why he returned the money.
Media reports including social media commentators had said the money was paid to him to trap him and also to buy his silence but he has debunked that assession saying that it was not meant to trap him and that was not even part of why he returned the money.
According to him in a statement, “I did not think the payment was made to trap me, as is being speculated. I believe it was paid to everybody who served on the Council of State. However, I thought that extra payment was inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work, for which I received a monthly salary and was entitled to other benefits. So I was uncomfortable with it”.
Explaining further, Togbe Afede noted that he sent a letter to the Secretary of the Council of State in which he expressed his happiness for the honour to serve in the Council of State but also pointed out that he thinks his work doesn’t merit extra payment in addition to the monthly salary he enjoyed for what was like a part-time job.
He said the rejection of the money was also in tandem with his personal disapproval of the payment of huge sums of money as Ex Gratia to people.
“I want to add that the rejection of the money was consistent with my general abhorrence of the payment of huge Ex Gratia and other outrageous benefits to people who have by their own volition offered to serve our poor country,” the statement concluded.
