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Deputy Minister for Information, Fatimatu Abubakar has intimated that members of the Council of State who take ex-gratia have every right to receive what is due them.

According to her, Togbe Afede’s refund should not put other people in the Council of State in bad standing because they receive their payments.

Paramount Chief of the Asogli Traditional Area, Togbe Afede XIV returned GH¢365,000 he received as ex-gratia to the state.

According to him, the work he did as a Council of State member does not merit the ex-gratia he was paid.

But the deputy information minister believes it is a personal decision made by the Chief and should not prevent others from receiving the money.

“If you choose not to accept your actual salaries and retirement benefits, I don’t have any problem with it but It doesn’t mean those who are paid what’s due them have done something wrong,” she said on Asaase News.

“If you want to return it (ex-gratia) and there’s a legal and legitimate way of doing it, I don’t have any issue with it.

“But it doesn’t mean those who take their entitlements drawn from provisions of the 1992 Constitution have done anything wrong, have received an undue payment, or have received an inappropriate payment,” she added.

Speaking in an earlier interview with Joy News, Togbe Afede XIV explained, saying, “Let me subject this to a bit of analysis, that will respect also the situation in our country and the plight of the average Ghanaian. Some people must not be made to look like a different class of people, but coming to my particular case, the council of state work is part-time work.

“… The council of state work must not take you away from what you have already been doing and therefore it is not a case that you need to be compensated at the end of it all as if you are being thrown out of your job.”

“So, I do not think that the work that I did merit it. But let me assure you that I was one of the most active participants in the council of state, and I was chairman of the economic and special development committee which never met without me.

“Nonetheless, I can’t deny the fact that it was part-time work and it was not a full-time work … and I did it for four years, that I deserve a colossal GH¢365,000? That’s a big amount of money,” Togbe Afede XIV added.

Meanwhile, Lawyer Martin Kpebu has called for a drastic overhaul of the Council of State.

According to him, the advisory board has become redundant due to political infiltration.