You dare not take on other chiefs like Togbe Afede – Kwesi Pratt ‘tackles’ Paul Adom Otchere

Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has taken a subtle dig at the host of Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom Otchere over his recent ‘attack’ on Togbe Afede XIV for returning ex-gratia he received.

Speaking on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ programme on June 8, Pratt opined that all chiefs and citizens alike should be treated equally as espoused in the 1992 Constitution.

He insisted that “if we come to the conclusion that chieftaincy will be tolerated, we should tolerate it in equal measure.”

The veteran journalists lamented the barrage of attacks Togbe Afede has been subjected to questioning whether it had an ethnic bias.

He observed that some persons including Paul Adom Otchere who have publicly ‘attacked’ the traditional leader would not dare take it on to other traditional leaders in the country.

“Some of the things being done to Togbe Afede, also [what] are being said about him would not be said and done about other chiefs and that’s my worry.

“Some of the people who are castigating him publicly, dragging him into the mud and so on, they dare not do it to other chiefs…what is the reason?

“Is it because we consider some paramountcy inferior to others? Does it have in it some element of ethical bias? I don’t know but these are things we need to interrogate. If you decide to put chieftaincy on a certain pedestal which I refuse to do then please put everybody on the same pedestal,” Kwesi Pratt admonished.

Togbe Afede XIV in a statement dated June 6, 2022, confirmed that he had refunded over ¢365,000 ex-gratia paid to him for serving on the Council of State between 2017 and 2020.

He indicated that he felt uncomfortable with the money paid for part-time work which he received monthly salaries and other benefits.

Togbe Afede mentioned that the refund was hinged on his “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.”

However, the Host of Good Evening Ghana Paul Adom-Otchere has been unimpressed by the gesture accusing him of attending only 39 out of 242 meetings of the Council of State – a claim the Asogli state has dismissed as a lie.

Mr. Adom-Otchere has also asked Togbe Afede to return all the salaries he took as a Council of State member.

“The Council of State is paid every month and he [Togbe Afede] took all his salaries, of which he is entitled to it.

“In giving us the narrations, he should have stated that he was unable to attend all the meetings of the Council of State, yet he took all his salaries including his car loan, a waiver from Ghana Ports and Harbour’s Authority to import cars…the amount of monies government [took] off the loans that were paid to the Council of State members are more than the GH¢365k he is talking about, for a person who only attended 16 percent of Council of State meetings,” he said on his show on Tuesday.