The Association of Resident
Doctors (ARD), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) chapter, on
Wednesday commenced a five-day warning strike over alleged slash in
their salaries.
Addressing newsmen after a peaceful rally at the hospital, the President of the association, Dr Ige Kolawole, said that they were forced to embark on the strike following the continued deduction of their salaries since January 2014.
Reports from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) say that the ARD members were armed with placards of various inscriptions as they marched round the hospital complex.
Some of the placards read: “Stop Selected Victimisation of Resident Doctors and House Officers.”
“Underpayment of UITH Resident Doctors Is Deliberate by CMD; Mr CMD Disobedience to Government Directives is Illegal.’’
Kolawole
said that the deduction was peculiar to UITH, as their members in other
teaching hospitals across the country were receiving 100 per cent of
their salaries. The ARD president said
that the hospital’s management has not given cogent reasons as to why
the illegal deduction should continue.
He said that the only reasons given by the UITH Chief Medical Director, Dr Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, was that additional 150 House Officers had been employed by the hospital.
“This
is a demonstration of wickedness as our salaries have continued to be
deducted because of additional employment of House Officers,’’ Kolawole said.
He also accused the hospital management of employing additional workers without due authorisation from the appropriate quarters.
According
to Kolawole, “Enough is enough in UITH, the management should stop
slashing our salaries and also stop collecting pension which is being
put in a special account.”
He said that the association would not hesitate to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) to look into the matter.
The
ARD president urged the Federal Government to intervene and stop the
UITH management from further slashing their salaries and victimisation
of the doctors.
When contacted, the UITH Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Omojasola,
who neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, said that the
management would convene a meeting to discuss issues raised by the
doctors.
NAN.