Pressure group Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has served notice it will petition the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on Friday, February 12 to investigate the circumstances that led to the acquisition of property in the last four years by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin.
The details of the property were put in a writ filed against Mr Arhin by his wife, Gloria Assan Arhin, seeking divorce and compensation.
Mr Arhin has since responded to the writ filed on Wednesday, February 10.
“First of all, we commend Mr Arhin for exercising a high sense of maturity by restraining from washing his marital linen in public,” ASEPA said in a release issued on Thursday, February 11 by Executive Director Mensah Thompson.
“In lieu of the pertaining issues raised against him by his wife, the appropriate forum to respond to them is the Court and we are happy he has chosen to do just that.”
The pressure group, however, indicated that “there is an even bigger interest of the public which pertains the number of assets listed by his wife in the divorce petition as assets acquired by Mr Arhin in the last four years for which she is making a claim of 50% on”.
“In the interest of public accountability for public officers, we have just completed a petition invoking the jurisdiction of CHRAJ to investigate Mr Arhin who is also the Director of Communication for the Presidency on the grounds of illegal acquisition of wealth to be filed early tomorrow morning.”
Among other things, ASEPA’s petition is to pray CHRAJ to subpoena Mr Arhin’s Asset Declaration records filed when he assumed office as Director of Communication at the Presidency and compare them with the number of assets listed on the divorce petition then put it alongside his salary for the last four years.
“The average salary of a Presidential staffer is about GH¢14,000 and so in four years Mr Arhin’s total gross salary estimates around GH¢560,000 minus his liabilities or monthly expenditures.
“Therefore Mr Arhin must definitely explain to CHRAJ how he was able to acquire those staggering properties in four years considering the current compensation regime for Presidential staffers in Ghana.”
