Former MP for Ellembele Constituency, Freddie Blay
• Freddie Blay was the Member of Parliament for Ellembele Constituency for three terms
• It has come to light he once had to give money for the burial of a departed constituent
• Some constituents dumped the body at his home in protest of cash for burial
The private home of then Member of Parliament for Ellembele Constituency, Freddie Blay once received a dead body, it has been revealed.
George Kofi Arthur, a former Member of Parliament for Amenfi Central has disclosed that some irate residents in the Ellembele constituency once dumped a corpse at the home of Freddy Blay to press home their demand for money for burial rites.
He narrated that the needy residents after failing to reach their MP for support, opted to ‘deliver’ the dead body to his house.
“I’m telling you this and if you think I’m lying you can go and verify. His constituents came to abandon a corpse behind his house as early as 5am in the morning because they needed money from him to transport the corpse.
This happened to Hon Freddie Blay who is NPP Chairman when he was an MP. Look at the whole nation and its leadership, which people can this be done to? But they went to him and he had to satisfy them,” he said on Accra-based Okay FM.
George Kofi Arthur was speaking on the hardship some lawmakers go through at the hands of their constituents.
He said that Ghanaians have high financial expectations of their lawmakers and will fall on them for help any time.
He bemoaned that this places the MPs in difficult financial situations as their survival hinge on how they are able to meet these financial demands among other responsibilities.
His revelation follows a recent disclosure by the Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency who revealed that he has , for the past four years, spent more than GH¢100,000 on funeral donations.
Eugene Boakye said on Metro TV: “I think the constitution has outlived its usefulness and we must amend it. Unit committee member, no salary, no budget; assembly member, no salary and no budget. Everything happens in the community and there are looking up to the MPs. Who goes to the Chief Justice’s house to beg for money? How many people can have access to the Chief Justice or IGP or Jean Mensa or Josephine Nkrumah or Nana Otuo Serebour. As an MP try to turn someway away and you’ll hear the insults and undermining.
“And in all of this you have to draw the same salaries as those people under Article 71. If I tell you the amount of ‘nsawa’ I have made for the last four years, you’ll weep for me. I’m heading towards GH¢100,000 and it all comes from the salaries,” he said.