State attorneys on strike

• Posted on October 9, 2014October 9, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

State attorneys in two regions are up in arms against the Attorney General’s Department for being treated as second class lawyers.

The state attorneys in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, who said their allowances have not been paid for two years – clothes, fuel and leave -, declared indefinite strike on Wednesday.

A state attorney who wants to remain anonymous told Evans Mensah on Joy FM’s Top Story that for two years, all letters to the Chief Director and the Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, respectively listing their plight were not even acknowledged.

To worsen matters, while their demands have also been ignored, their counterparts in Accra have been enjoying the benefits they are struggling to access, the lawyer claimed.

“We can’t hold it any longer,” he stated, stressing, “we won’t allow ourselves to be graded as second class attorneys.”

The attorney said even a recent letter to the A-G’s department stating their intention to go on strike if their demands are not met was equally treated with disdain.

He said they waited all this while without embarking on the industrial action because members “wanted to make sacrifices for the nation” in the face of the financial constraint the country is going through. However, he stated, they have realized that money was not the problem and would therefore demand their pound of flesh after their colleagues in Accra were given what was due them.

He is therefore calling for an end to the “animal farm” situation they have been subjected to in the past few years. “Those in Accra are not better than those in the other regions…we had the same training,” he declared.

The indefinite strike will definitely have a serious effect on justice delivery, he acknowledged, but maintained that they are noted for speaking for the voiceless but must this time speak for themselves.

Greater Accra Regional President of the Ghana Bar Association, Frank Davies admitted not recalling or hearing state attorneys laying down their tools in his many years of legal practice.

For this reason, he surmised, “for them to take this decision it means they have been pushed too hard against the wall.”

He has therefore pleaded for immediate resettlement because the situation is “quite an embarrassment to the whole bar”.

Frank Davies feared if the Attorney General fails to act, the judicial system would ground to a halt.

By: Isaac Essel