Nurses’ association president faces impeachment

Catherine Arrey Takor, National President of the Association of the Professions of Nurse, Midwife and Health Technician, is currently facing threats of impeachment for unmasking a gang in the association.

The gang, in collusion with some unscrupulous staff in the Ministry of Public Health, has been siphoning the association’s finances, especially the national annual aid given to it by the Ministry of Public Health. Since taking over the mantle of office in 2012, Arrey Takor, embarked on a campaign to block all the leakages through which the association’s funds were sinking into.

Her determination to uphold transparency and accountability in an association that has been ripped apart by corruption placed her on warpath with some of her executives.

Speaking to The Post in Buea recently, Arrey Takor, said the gang members, who have been preying on the association’s income are scheming to topple her.

According to her, the animosity of her close collaborators deteriorated when she re-directed FCFA 10 million, which was given to the association by the Minister of Public Health in 2014 as subvention.

The FCFA 10 million, she said, was diverted to a different account by the Secretary General of the association.

In a letter to the General Manager of Afriland First Bank, dated February 18, 2015, Arrey Takor wrote; “Embezzlement of national subvention funds of FCFA 10 million for the year 2014 into the national subvention account No 11553973050-42 SCB Yaounde.

I regret to inform you of the deliberate misdirection of the above sum by the Regional President for Centre, Mr Joseph Tchouata, and the Secretary General of the above council.

This sum is to be paid into the national account in SCB Yaounde (see bank statement) failure to transfer the said money into the national account shall attract legal sanction,” read the letter in parts.

In a separate letter addressed to the President of the National Anti-corruption Commission, CONAC, dated April 22, 2015, Arrey Takor prayed the anti-corruption watchdog to probe into the use of State subventions that were given to the association in 2013 and 2014, which she said, were misappropriated by some of its corrupt members.

The President of the Medico-Sanitary technicians association said ever since she uncovered the 10 million racket, the corrupt cabal led by the Secretary General, Joseph Tchouata, the Vice President Abdoulaye Aminatou, Jean Junang and Sidonie Yangoue, has been doing everything to frustrate her administration.

According to her, the aforementioned persons have been carrying out negative sensitisation tours to the Regions, handpicking and imposing persons loyal to them to positions of responsibility, initiated the closure of the national bank account to disrupt the smooth functioning of the association.

She also accused them of boycotting official meetings, formation of rebellious camps, refusal to co-sign with the President for bank withdrawals, organising and presiding over meetings without permission from the President, refusal to produce attestations for candidates from the Southwest, Northwest and Littoral Regions in 2014, confiscation and falsification of official documents, gross insubordination and poor moral and professional conducts among others.

She further revealed that since the escalation of the conflict, all attempts to see the Minister of Public Health have been abortive, as some staff in the Ministry who are working in complicity with the clique have been denying her audience with the Minister.

“All we receive from the Minister are correspondences instructing us to do this or that. Things that cannot be done with the current atmosphere prevailing in the association. From all indications, some of the correspondences are not written by the Minister, but by some of his staff who have been conniving with the association executives to embezzle its funds.”

Arrey Takor beseeched the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Health and other Government officials to intervene and solve the problem before it further destroys the association.

“I have been sued in two separate cases for trying to instil transparency and accountability in the association. The problem is further compounded by the fact that I am an Anglophone.

My close collaborators are planning to annul the Elective General Assembly that held on May 7, 2016, in Yaounde where a new bureau for the association was elected following Ministerial letter NoD30-199/L/MINSANTE/SG/DOST/SDOS/SPMS of 4/4/2016.”

On their part, Joseph Tchouata, Abdoulaye Aminatou, Jean Junang, Sidonie Yangoue and members of the Littoral Bureau of the association have accused Arrey Takor of overzealousness, highhandedness and inferiority complex in managing the association.

In a letter dated May 10, 2014, the aforementioned persons wrote, “acting as board members of the association, we are shocked by the way you are going about the management of this association because issues such as reconciliation meetings are not provided for by the laws and regulations that govern the association…we condemn such turpitude, whose source is likely ignorance, cultural and ethnocentric complex…”

However, as the conflict of authority in the association rages on, the President of the association is praying the powers that be to wade in and put an end to it before it completely destroys the association.