Ex-Assembly members demand ex-gratia

Former members in the East Gonja Municipal Assembly of the Savannah Region are angry with the Assembly over delays in the payment of their ex-gratia a year after their tenure of office expired.

According to them, the East Gonja Municipal Assembly is deliberately refusing to pay them the ex-gratia and have since given the assembly a two-week ultimatum to credit their accounts or face their wrath.

Speaking to 3news.com, the leader of the aggrieved former assembly members, Inusah Ibrahim, said almost all assemblies across the country have paid the ex-gratia except the East Gonja Assembly.

“As former Assembly members, we contributed our might to the development of the various electoral areas we represent so why will the MCE deliberately refuse to pay us our money when all assemblies have paid.”

He appealed to the Local Government Minister, Savannah Region Minister and the leadership of National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) to get the MCE to pay them the money.

He noted any further delay will trigger taking some actions against the assembly and government.

Reacting to the demands by the Assembly members, the MCE for East Gonja, Mohammed Tamimu, in a telephone conversation, said the Assembly is yet to mobilize money to pay the ex-gratia since the District Assembly Common Fund cannot be used to pay.

He appealed to the former assembly members to continue to exercise restraint as the assembly works around the clock to mobilize money for their payment.