The Northern Regional Director of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Sule Salifu has responded to a group of Community Personnel Assistants (CPA) in the Tamale metropolis protesting their unpaid allowances, warning the staff to stop the smear campaign against him, asking; ‘what is news about community police not being paid for five or six months’.
“We have sent details about the way salaries are delayed in paying these community people. In any case look, we have several modules at the YEA; we have Arabic instructors at the YEA, look I’m telling you, is not all of them who have not been paid. Some of them have not been paid for the past three months, have you seen them agitating?”
“In any case, we have people who are even permanently employed by the state and they have not been paid for months. No, what is strange about it; community police officer has not been paid for six or five months and it’s all news?”
Sule Salifu was responding to over 200 staff of the Community Police Assistants who are asking for their allowance which have been in arrears for several months to be paid to them.
The officers became frustrated and begun a protest in December last year after several shifting timeless for payment by the employers.
They launched a social media campaign to make the demand after security agencies blocked them from embarking on street demonstrations.
They accused the regional director and two top officials of diverting their allowances after lamenting how the delayed salary was impacting their lives negatively and called for national attention.
“You told us lies and recruited us just to pretend you are offering jobs. I am 4th batch working but have been paid only once. Am I a goat? Don’t you receive your salaries in your offices? Where is our share? So, we won’t accept more lies. They have threatened to sack us if we come out to complain, but try to pay us our allowances before sacking us,” an angry Mohammed Mubarak told Starr News after the aborted protest.
Responding to the concerns by the officers, the Regional Director told local radio station ‘Radio Tamale’, that issues of delayed payment of salaries were a nationwide challenge not limited to only the Youth Employment Agency, adding the officers were engaged in planned attempt to harm his reputation.
“Look, when the president was giving me the appointment, he said I should go and do a good job for him and his government. And that is why YEA, there is no staff – District Director or Regional Director who has not been a party official before. So if they pick you as a community police officer and you think that you can go on the streets and demonstrate, destroy people reputation, malign your own party people; you are not doing me, you are doing your own party that has brought you there. If the party loses power you would see who you people will accuse of not paying you”.
Sule Salifu continued “I mean it’s so annoying that I have tolerated these boys for a long period and they are going to destroy…look, and they can’t destroy my reputation. They should even go back when I was the regional secretary of the NPP, they should go to Prudential bank. I am not a criminal. I am not a die-hard of making money quick. In any case, none of them can say they are more NPP than me. What I have done for this party if a brick of it fall on them they will burn into ashes”.
The director later said his outfit and that of the Tamale metropolis were working tirelessly to ensure the arrears are paid.
“They should understand one thing that the regional office here is doing a lot of work together with the district directors or metropolitan offices for the salaries come. Go to Zoomlion they will tell you, NABCO, some people ’s money have not come and even G.E.S, teachers who have completed school and they are employed, Nurses, their monies have not come; they don’t agitate and not trying to destroy people’s reputation”.
