Face-off between Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Owerri, Dr. Angela Uwakem, and health workers took another dimension yesterday when they accused the Federal Ministry of Health of covering Uwakem’s misdeeds.

 

They also accused some top officials of the ministry in Abuja of trying to cover up alleged financial mismanagement by the medical director.

 

The health workers under the aegis of three major unions of FMC Owerri, had embarked on a month’s strike over demand for the Medical Director’s suspension for alleged gross financial misconduct and highhandedness.

 

Reacting to the statement credited to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Linus Awute, on the ongoing industrial action, the unions questioned the delusion of transparency and procedural virtues tenable in public services, stressing that the permanent secretary had started taking sides with Uwakem “whose record on financial recklessness is marginally heart-breaking.”

 

The unions comprise National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, NANNM: Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, and Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals, NUAHP. In a letter addressed to Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, titled, ‘Re: FG to Sanction Striking Health Workers; Says Disruption of Services Act of Hooliganism’ and signed by its chairmen and secretaries, the unions reminded the ministry officials that the unavoidable strike was not the wish of the workers, but to press home issues that affect their collective interest and that of the citizenry.

 

“The three unions resolved after a congress on June 4 to refute points raised by your office to trample on the workers’ right to live; right to peaceful assembly; right to peaceful protest; right to suggestions; right to solutions and right to leadership as enshrined in relevant extant laws and rules of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” they stated.

SOURCE: http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/scam-health-ministry-protecting-fmc-md/