Withdrawal of Kufour`s cars illegal

Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, a former parliamentary hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described as illegal and unconstitutional, a decision by the government to withdraw the three BMW cars, which were in the custody of ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor.

“The withdrawal of the cars from the house of the ex-President is illegal and unconstitutional, and if they continue to flout the constitution, the good people of Ghana would speak against the action' he disclosed.

According to him, the constitution of the Republic scowls on any decision that tends to take away or vary facilities available to a former President to his disadvantage. Quoting from article 68, section 9 of the constitution to buttress his point, Titus Glover who is also one of the vocal NPP activists said it was wrong for the NDC government to withdraw the cars from the ex-President.

Article 68, section 9 of the constitution states that; “Pension payable to the President and the facilities available should not be varied to his disadvantage during his life time”. He disclosed that the Chenery Hesse report, part of which states that ex-President Kufour should be given six cars, has been approved by parliament and most beneficiaries have already received their packages.

He therefore, expressed shock as to why the NDC government has decided to embarrass the ex-President over the withdrawal of the cars, after state security apparatus had gone to his house to pick three, out of the six cars which were there initially.

The Tema East NPP firebrand revealed that he was fully in support of ex-President Kufuor's decision not to accept the Chrysler cars been offered to him by the Mills administration.

He noted that when ex-President Rawlings was leaving office eight years ago, he took along with him 17 cars, as his ex-gratia award. Mr. Titus Glover went further to state that later, the ex-President's office was allowed to select 12 of the cars and Victor Smith, who was then ex-President Rawlings' special assistant, wrote to the former Chief of Staff, Kwame Mpianim and returned five of the cars.

He hinted that Ghanaians appreciate the tenets of democracy and the role of ex-President Kufour in our democratic dispesation, and are therefore prepared to buy the same type of cars with similar specifications for the ex President. He however, intimated that the actions of the NDC government was a diversionary tactics to sidetrack the attention of Ghanaians from what he described as their 'Sakawa Budget', because according to him the budget lacks vision and hope for the citizens of Ghana.

He wondered how a budget that is envisaging total receipt of GH¢ 9.793.1 million would be achieved. “Historically, our budget had been supported by the donor community and with the global financial melt down, they will not have the full commitment of the donor community”.

He further disclosed that the NDC had not brought anything new to the budget because most of the projects in the budget are NPP projects for which funds have already been sourced.

On the government commitment to supporting the private sector, Mr. Titus Glover averred that if indeed it believes that the private sector partnership helps in development as it claims, then why did it fail to provide them funding and cushioning. He noted that the NPP government committed US$ 4,881,000 to support the private sector when it was in office.

He also lashed at the NDC for withdrawing the scholarship scheme for cocoa farmers in the country from the budget, saying the NPP gave ¢2 billion to support the scheme.