By: Haja Hawa Koroma
The Sierra Leone police has issued out a press statement on the 30th May 2022 denying all claims of a story that was published by Sierra loaded an online news medium stating that some police officers have planned or are planning to embark on a nationwide strike action.
According to reports the strike action is slated for an unknown date due to a salary deduction of le300,000 (three hundred thousand Leones) without their knowledge or notification.
The management and staff of the Sierra Leone police, therefore issued out a press statement to clarify the above information.
According to the police officers, their salaries are inclusive of allowances and they are categorized as fixed and/or temporal allowances and that the fixed allowances are continuous and are always part of their salaries.
Again, their temporal allowances are occasionally inclusive as part of their salaries contingent upon certain subsisting national situations and/or circumstances, such as emergencies.
Furthermore, when the situation and/or circumstances which necessitated the allowance(s) subside(s) normalizes or drastically improves the allowance received for that purpose will be terminated.
So during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone, the government through the ministry of finance informed the police management about the inclusion of three hundred thousand Leones into police officers’ salaries known as temporal risk allowance during the peak of the pandemic. This information was adequately communicated to all the police personnel through the command structures of the Sierra Leone police and they there in started receiving and continue to receive the said amount into their salaries on a monthly basis.
Given the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic had greatly been subdued in Sierra Leone, as a result of the government’s effective control and preventive measures, the personnel were again informed of the government’s intention to terminate this temporal risk allowance.
The government then terminated the inclusion of the said temporal risk allowance into police officers’ salaries across the board for the month of May 2022.
The Sierra Leone police management therefore wishes to inform the public that there are no plans whatsoever by all or any group or groups of police officers to embark on any nationwide strike action in respect of the aforementioned facts.
They further wishes to inform the public that the information that was published on Sierra Loaded’s page or any other media outlet concerning their imminent strike action is not only false, but is also considered as a calculated ploy by the publishers to stir up anger, hatred and discord within and amongst the rank and file of the Sierra Leone police.
The Sierra Leone police assure the public that no right thinking police officer would ever entertain the planning of such a mutinous act, let alone think of engaging in same. They have established structures to address personnel’s grievances, if any as the organization is guided by established rules and regulations.
They also urge the general public not to countenance such unfounded claims and to not allow them to be distracted by malicious falsehood, peddled by unpatriotic people in society.
