Ex-gratia payment: Tsikata sues K.T. Hammond for defamation

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Tsatsu Tsikata has sued former Deputy Energy Minister, K.T. Hammond, at the High Court for defamation.

Mr. Tsikata in his writ said the Adansi-Asokwa MP made false allegations against him in a radio interview when he claimed that he [Tsatsu Tsikata] had been paid an ex-gratia of Ghc 1million for his twelve-year service at the GNPC.

He said Mr. K.T. Hammond also made other defamatory statements against him, hence the opportunity for him to prove them in court.

[contextly_sidebar id=”8Lt253kg7p3K3SVfBJEav8GX0v8Uz6Tk”]Mr. Tsikata further justified why he deserves to be paid the ex-gratia, explaining that “after twelve years of service as the GNPC CEO, even salary payments during a period when I was on leave in 2001, were not made to me. My entitlements to the Provident Fund were never paid – not even my own contributions. No end of service benefits of any sort was ever paid. A letter I wrote to the Chairman of the board of directors at the time was not answered,” he noted.

It would be recalled that Mr. K.T. Hammond in a Citi News interview questioned the propriety of the said payments to Mr. Tsikata and three others including Mrs. Esther Cobbah, a one-time Public Affairs Manager at GNPC, who happens to be Mr. Tsikata’s wife.

Mrs. Cobbah has in an earlier statement denied receiving such amount but justified why she deserves to be paid.

Esther Cobbah [Left], Tsatsu Tsikata [Right]
Among other things, Mr. K.T. Hammond described the payments as criminal and demanded an investigation by the presidency into them.

But when Parliament’s Committee on Mines and Energy of which K.T. Hammond is a member invited the GNPC’s CEO Alex Mould for clarity on the payment, it later emerged that only one person had been paid out of the four contrary to Mr. Hammond’s claims.

The GNPC justified the payments and has been given up to Monday December 7 by the committee; to produce the necessary documents to them back them.

Below is Mr. Tsikata’s statement on his suit

 

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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana