Kow Essuman, a former Legal Counsel to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has told the Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson he has until Friday, September 11, 2026, to pay his outstanding salary arrears and terminal benefits or face legal action.
In a social media post, Kow Essuman expressed his frustration about his unpaid salary and benefits, which he said he has been waiting for 20 months.
According to Kow Essuman, the government has refused to pay his salary arrears and terminal benefits, urging the Finance Minister to do the needful and pay him before Friday to avoid judgment debt with interest.
Kow Essuman wrote in a post shared on X on September 10, 2026, stating, “20 months of waiting. Can’t wait any longer. This week, I instructed my lawyers to write to the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, MP, to DEMAND my salary arrears and terminal benefits for my service to the nation. I have also demanded INTEREST on the outstanding amount. I expect the Finance Minister to do the needful (PAY ME BY FRIDAY) and avoid JUDGMENT DEBT WITH INTEREST!”.
He also shared a formal letter written by his lawyers to the Finance Minister demanding him for his outstanding ex-gratia arrears and terminal benefits following the expiration of his tenure in January 2025.
On September 8, 2026, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, lawyers for Kow Essuman detailed that he appointed Legal Counsel to then-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in January 2021 and later appointed acting Secretary to the President in October 2024, in addition to his duties as legal counsel serving until January 7, 2025, when the former President’s tenure ended.
According to the lawyers, their client’s appointment entitled him to terminal benefits including “four (4) months’ consolidated salary for every completed year of service or part thereof, an installation grant equivalent to one month’s salary, and a resettlement grant equivalent to one month’s salary for each year or fraction thereof served”.
The lawyers further argued that the benefits, together with outstanding salary arrears, became due to their client at the end of his tenure.
They also cited Section 2(c) of the Presidential (Transition) Act, 2012 (Act 845), which requires the Transition Team to ensure that salaries, allowances and retiring benefits due to specified public office holders are paid “without undue delay.”
Kow Essuman lawyers further claimed that while the Speaker and Members of Parliament, former Ministers and Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs and members of the Council of State had received their respective arrears and terminal benefits, their client and other former Presidential Staffers remained unpaid.
The lawyer stated, “Where persons who served in comparable public offices during the same period have received their applicable benefits, the continued withholding of our client’s entitlement is arbitrary, discriminatory, unfair and unlawful”.
According to the lawyers, Kow Essuman had made several representations over the matter without success.
They are further demanding that the Ministry of Finance pay the outstanding amount, together with interest from January 7, 2025, at the prevailing commercial bank rate.
The lawyers also gave the Ministry until Friday, September 11, 2026, to settle the outstanding principal and interest in full, warning that failure to meet the deadline would result in their client commencing legal proceedings against the State.
20 months of waiting. Can’t wait any longer. This week, I instructed my lawyers to write to the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, MP, to DEMAND my salary arrears and terminal benefits for my service to the nation. I have also demanded INTEREST on the outstanding amount. I… pic.twitter.com/nZRwHFzNEy
— Kow Essuman (@kaessuman) September 10, 2026
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