By: Oluwatosin Adesola
ONDO DOCTORS GO ON INDEFINITE STRIKE
Resident Doctors at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Ondo, UNIMEDTH have embarked on indefinite strike over unpaid salaries and other allowances.
SUNSHINETRUTH gathered that doctors who converged on the UNIMEDTH Akure Annexe to declare the industrial action said they were left with no other option than to commence the indefinite strike after the seven days warning strike earlier carried out did not yield any positive response from the state government.
Addressing journalists in Akure, Acting President, National Association of Resident Doctors, UNIMEDTH Ondo, Dr Sanni Oriyomi said his members could no longer work without being paid as the government was still owing them four and half months salaries, covid allowance and other entitlements.
Dr Oriyomi lamented that the non payment of salaries had led to the resignation of over fifty resident doctors from the teaching hospital, a situation which he said was not good for patients as they would be left in the hands of frustrated medical experts.
He however mentioned payment of the four and half months salary arrears as the minimum requirement to end the strike in the interest of the masses while other demands could be worked upon.
Spokesperson for the doctors, Taiwo Olagbe while also saying the indefinite strike was inevitable in view of the hardship they faced appealed to the state government to accede to their demands in the shortest possible time so that the masses would not suffer for it.
The resident doctors had embarked on series of industrial actions to press home their demands from government including a warning strike which they claimed had not yielded any positive response.
Contacted, the state health commissioner, Dr Jibayo Adeyeye, said the state government was already working towards ensuring the Resident doctors receive their salaries same day with the civil servants.
Adeyeye said the plan was to move the doctors’ salaries to the central pay system.
LAWYERS EMBARK ON STRIKE
The Lawyers in the services of the state government are set to down tool due to what the call inability of government to meet their financial obligations.
The lawyers under the aegis of the Legal Officers Association of Nigeria, (LOAN), Ondo State chapter today staged a protest to the governor’s office, Alagbaka Akure.
They displayed various placards with different inscriptions such as “legal officers lives matter, no to self-financing of government responsibilities, no to boarding of Okada” were demanding that allowances approved for them should be paid.
The Legal Officers in a statement signed by its Chairman, Babatunde Victor Falodun and Secretary, Wale Banisile and addressed to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu said the work-to-rule strike action would persist until their demands are met.
The statement said the administration of justice in Ondo State has suffered untold hardship due to constraints of funds and abysmal condition of service.
It said legal poverty must end in the state as the state Counsel are the least paid in the country.
Other demands were stoppage of the N187 State Counsel Allowance and upward review of same to reflect current reality, end to commercial motorcycling to courts as well as release of funds approved for outfit/Robe allowance since March 2020.
They said that the legal officers could no longer work without necessary allowances from government.
According to them “only two of the seventeen vehicles refurbished in the ministry of Justice were returned thereby making it difficult for them to attend court cases.
ONDO GOVT REACTS TO LOAN STRIKE
The ondo state government has reacted to the two industrial actions by doctors and lawyers in the state.
The State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Kolawole Olawoye, declared that the work-to-rule strike action embarked upon by state chapter of the Law Officers Association of Nigeria (LOAN) was embarrassing.
Olawoye said that the members did not issue him or the state government any strike notice.
Reacting to the strike action, Mr Olawoye said ethics of the law profession demand the lawyers give him or government strike notice.
On the doctors’ strike, the ondo state acting commissioner for health, Dr Jibayo Adeyeye, said the state government was already working towards ensuring the Resident doctors receive their salaries same day with the civil servants.
Dr Adeyeye said the plan was to move the doctors’ salaries to the central pay system.