State Attorneys in the Upper West region have accused government of deliberately refusing to pay their outstanding allowances.
The Deputy State Attorney in the Upper West region, Sahid Abdul Shakul on Eyewitness News said though government had settled the arrears of State Attorneys in the Greater Accra region, it has not made any move to pay that of those in the Upper West region.
He described the situation as an apartheid tactic being employed by government.
“…Our colleagues in Accra have been paid their entire allowance and that suggests that there is an apartheid system in the Attorney General’s Department…if you can decide to pay all the attorneys in Accra, it suggests that the rest of us are the insignificant minority,”he fumed.
[contextly_sidebar id=”OHvOaYTlTds86HXXEc4fOcDqrASOVHYg”]He said the Attorneys in the region are planning to lay down their tools if government fails to address their grievances.
“We are planning on laying down our tools. Its so painful, its so regrettable…Somebody ought to listen to us. We are not asking for any increment, we are not asking for any other thing, we just asking for what is due us.”
According to Shakul, the only region that has so far received its due over the past months is the Greater Accra region
“Our allowances that are due us have not been paid and nobody is saying something about it which makes it more painful.”
Lawyers in the Attorney Generals Department in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region and the Ashanti Region recently declared an indefinite strike over the non-payment of their accrued allowances in the last two years.
They said “the issuance of several petitions and notices for the [payment of these] monies yielded no results, not even acknowledgement of the petitions.”
Government in a bid to settle the grievances of the lawyers on Saturday held talks with them to convince them to suspend their strike.
The meeting sought to negotiate with the striking lawyers, to avoid any disruptions in delivery of justice in the two regions.
It appears the meeting was inconclusive.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana