The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu has sent a strongly worded petition to President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly rescue the workers  from the grip of corruption, embezzlement, misappropriation and  abuse  of office  under the administration of  the Medical Director, Dr. Jojo U. Onwukwe.

 

The unionists said Dr Onwukwe had attained the compulsory retirement age of 60 years on October 3, 2014, but has  remained in office as the  medical director in total disregard to the mandatory retirement age specified by the civil service  rules.

 

Besides, they accused the  Onwukwe administration of diverting  over N254,138,616 million released by the Federal Government for the completion of ongoing projects in the hospital.

 

Addressing a press conference entitled “Rescue From  Corruption/Embezzlement/Misappropriation and Abuse of  Office  in Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu” in Enugu Tuesday,  the officials of the JOHESU which comprises Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Senior Staff Association (SSA) and National Association of Nigeria  Nurses and Midwives (NANNUM), threatened that except the  federal government  investigated and  removed the medical director , they would close down the hospital without further delay, insisting that he is an obstacle to the progress of the establishment and workers’ welfare.

 

Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNUM), Comrade Ejimadu Alozie who, alongside his colleagues in the union, addressed journalists, alleged that the  N64,000,000 meant for payment of arrears of staff conversion, N110,138,616.00 meant for completion and equipping of the multi-purpose Clinical Services complex  had been embezzled while drug suppliers  under the Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) are being owed more than N10 million.

Also, the JOHESU accused the MD of embezzling N60,000,000 from the staff cooperative welfare, claiming that he has withheld the union’s check-off dues deduction since January 2015, among others.

 

Dr Onwukwe who was contacted by the journalists shortly after the press conference for his reaction through text messages and phone calls,  said journalists should keep the report until Friday when he would respond to various allegations leveled against him by the union leaders.

 

However, on being informed that journalists could not wait till such a long time for his reaction to the chains of allegations made against him, he later re-scheduled the appointment with journalists the following day  (Tuesday, August 11) at 9.30am, although he arrived at the venue around 10.30am.

 

Rather than reacting to the allegations, Dr. Onwukwe, who didn’t even sit down to address the journalists, said that he was at the venue to “fraternize with the journalists” and not to react to any issue raised by petitioners.

“I am here not for you to write any story for me but to fraternize with you journalists,” said the MD who never gave  any journalist the chance to ask any question as he insisted that he was not going to react to any issue or allegations.  He said he was a civil servant by virtue of the position he occupies, he cannot talk to the press. Shortly after his very brief speech, he left.

 

However, the unionists have vowed to shut down the hospital,  if the Federal Government failed to remove Onwukwe as soon as possible, stressing that the last demonstration they staged would be a child’s play compared to what they are planning presently.

 

“If you come to our hospital,  corruption stinks; it smells and you can still  perceive it.  That’s the problem we have there,” said one of the officials, who claimed that the MD also encouraged ghost workers since he took over the administration of the hospital.

 

“Those that died and the workers, who moved to other places of work in Nigeria and overseas, are still on the pay roll of the hospital and only the MD and the Chief Accountant know who is collecting their salaries. We have several pay slips of such ghost workers in our possession. The problem of ghost workers started with his administration; we had not experienced such thing before he came into office as the MD,” the unionists claimed.

 

According to the July 2015 pay slip obtained from the Accounts Department of the hospital, the salary of one of the ghost workers namely Ude Christiana Chinonyerem of Nursing Services Department, whose colleagues and relation contacted on phone confirmed to have died since August 2014, is still on the hospital’s payroll and her salary  is being drawn since the past one year. Her July 2015 salary as contained in the pay slip is N96,853.58.

 

Another worker identified as Oji-Okoro Margaret of Nursing Services Department, who left her job and travelled to United States since early last year (2014) is still on the payroll of the hospital.  Her July 2015 pay slip obtained showed that her salary for the month was N96,102.71 and the JOHESU leaders alleged that the amount was fraudulently collected by an unknown person.

 

Besides, the labour leaders in the hospital accused  the MD of victimizing them  by  withholding their salaries and allowances and demotion for  demanding justice, alleging that  some of them have been “unduly redeployed” to departments where they are more or less irrelevant.

 

“He started posting key officials from the audit department to other departments so that nobody will reveal his intrigues and financial pranks. The person heading the audit department studied banking and finance; she is not an accountant,” said Comrade Matthew Eze, Chairman, MHWUN, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu.

 

One of the Audit Staff, Mr. Tony Ozurumba, who is also Chairman of the Senior Staff Association in the hospital,  told Journalists that he was posted from the Audit department  to a small store in the hospital where  he sells sweets and biscuits to patients as a punishment for raising an alarm about the financial scam going on in the hospital. The seven-page statement was signed by the officials of JOHESU namely; Comrade Ozurumba Anthony, Chairman, SSA of FNHE; Onu Bank-Anthony, Secretary, SSA, Ugwu Eric A., Secretary , NANNM, Eze Matthew Chairman, MHWUN and Comrade Oduburu Friday, Secretary, MHWUN  – all operating on  the platform  of the hospital.

NationNewspaper