Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has called on all those calling on former First Lady Lordina Mahama to refund allowances paid to her from the time her husband became vice-president and president to date to let her be.

The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, Mr John Boadu, dared Mrs Mahama in a television interview to follow the example of her successor Rebecca Akufo-Addo, and refund to the state all allowances paid her between 2009 and June 2021, as the wife of a vice-president, president and former president.

Mr Boadu said: “Let me say this emphatically: former president Mahama’s wife, Lordina Mahama, must, as a matter of urgency, refund all monies paid to her since January 2017 till now”.

“Those she received as far back as 2009 should also be refunded”, he stressed, adding the “monies she has received from that time till now would amount to GHS3.2 million”.

Mr Baodu’s comment came after Mrs Akufo-Addo and the wife of the Vice-President, Mrs Samira Bawumia, rejected any future allowances from the state and promised to refund all allowances paid to them since 2017.

Mrs Akufo-Addo has since refunded hers to the state.

But reacting to those asking Mrs Lordina to follow the examples of the current First Lady, Mr Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the NPP and founder of the Danquah Institute, said “she [Lordina] does not have to refund a pesewa”.

“My second and final take on this spousal alawa issue: Leave Lordina Mahama alone! She doesn’t have to refund a pesewa of her alawa. After all, is it her fault her husband now says he always believed in the 2011 Constitution Review Commission Report’s recommendation to set up an Independent Emoluments Committee but he never ever saw the need to even attempt to implement it for the 4 years plus change that he was Head of State? Let her be,” Mr Otchere-Darko, who is also President Akufo-Addo’s cousin, said in a Facebook post.