Teacher denied entitlements pleads with Commission

Tamale, May 21, GNA - A teacher who had been denied his entitlements by the Ghana Education Service (GES), even though, he had been exonerated from criminal charges against him by the Wa High Court, appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission at its last public hearing in Tamale on Friday.

The teacher, Mr Yobo David Yussiph, who hails from Wa in the Upper West Region and now a Poultry Farmer, told the Commission that in 1981, he went to Chosia market near Wa where fighting broke out between two of his relatives. He said he went to separate them but in the process, one of them stabbed the other to death and bolted, adding that he remained at the spot while a mob pursued the culprit.

Mr Yussiph said to his surprise, when the mob returned without apprehending the offender, they accused him of committing the crime and threatened to attack him. Sensing danger, Mr Yussiph told them to report the case to the Wa Police, which they did. He said when the Police came to the scene and he narrated the story to them he was rather arrested and put in cells. He said he was tried at the Wa High Court, charged with murder but was later acquitted and discharged in 1991. The petitioner said all this while; the GES had interdicted him and he was on half salary.

Mr Yussiph said when he was exonerated, he petitioned the then Director General of the Ghana Education Service who wrote that, "with the acquittal and discharge of Mr Yussiph on July 17, 1991, in the criminal case against him, he is entitled to the refund of deductions made out of his salaries whilst he was on interdiction". The letter said: "The amount due him must be worked out and application made to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, through the Director General for authorization to enable him to have a refund of the deductions".

The petitioner said one Mr S.K Obeng signed the letter for the Director General. Mr Yussiph told the Commission that upon several petitions, the money was not refunded to him until he went on pension in 2002. He said his pension was calculated on his half salary that he was receiving at that time and this had adversely affected his life and his family. He, therefore, pleaded with the Commission to help him to get the refund and his pension to be calculated on his full salary and the difference paid to him.