Regional News of Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

Outgoing national service personnel threaten demo on Friday

Outgoing national service personnel have threatened to demonstrate on Friday October 3, if an extension request for the verification of particulars to claim their July/August allowance is not granted.

President of the National Service Personnel Association, Vincent Ekow Assifuah, toldMORNING STARR host Kafui Dey on STARR 103.5 FM Tuesday that over 1,200 personnel in the Accra metropolis failed to meet the September 19 deadline.

“We have realised that upon all our internal mechanisms to make sure that these things are resolved, it has proved very futile.

“We have no option than to hit the streets on Friday, this is not a call for violence but we want to make sure that a certain sanctity prevails for service persons to get their allowances,” Assifuah said. The exercise for the verification of particulars began on September 15.

After the exercise, which was undertaken by National Security in collaboration with the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), over 23 percent of the 2013/2014 personnel were unable to complete the process.

But the Public Relations Officer of NSS, Ambrose Entsiwah told host Kafui Dey that they are aware of the request from the service personnel and are trying to resolve their “genuine concerns”.

“We are aware that they have made the request for the extension of time for payment of the August allowances, however, officially we have not been informed of the intended demonstration,” Entsiwah said.

Entsiwah added that a meeting has been scheduled between the National service personnel and the secretariat to resolve their concerns.