Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole has directed Chief Medical Directors/ Medical Directors (CMDs/MDs) of Federal Hospitals to immediately engage the services of Locum Doctors to argument the services of Consultants, NYSC Doctors and Doctors on Internship pending the resolution of the on-going strike action by the Resident Doctors.
Resident Doctors across the country had commenced a nationwide strike since September 4.
This directive was contained in a circular Ref. No. C. 3132/Vol. V/116, of 5th September, 2017, addressed to all CMDs/MDs of Federal Tertiary Health Institutions across the country.
A statement by the Health Ministry’s Director of Media and Public Relations, Boade Akinola, quoted the minister to have said the action was in an attempt to reduce the increased workload of Consultants, NYSC Doctors and House officers thereby preventing reduction in quality of service delivery to patients.
It would be recall that the Minister had earlier approved the use of Armed forces, Police and Federal Road Safety Health Facilities in ensuring continuous provision of health care services in the hospitals.
The doctors under the umbrella body of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) are demanding for the resolution of persistent shortfalls and unpaid arrears of salaries earned in both federal and state tertiary health institutions.
Other issues are the enrolment of resident doctors into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) since 2003, and non-implementation of adjusted House Officers’ Entry grade level equivalent since 2014.
They are also asking for the resolution of issues around their stagnation of promotion and non-promotion of members who have met requisite criteria despite all collective bargaining agreements and circulars.
Three labour unions in the Agency of Nigeria (NAN) have issued a 21-day strike notice to implement three demands.
The unions are the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services (AUPCTRE) and the Radio, Television and Theatre Art Workers Union (RATTAWU).
In a formal letter conveying the strike notice to management of NAN, the unions expressed displeasure with “refusal to sign the draft Conditions of Service’’ for the agency.
They are also demanding full payment of transfer allowance to 20 members of staff, declared redundant by management, but who were later moved to Abuja and Lagos since February 1, 2017.
The unions also “reject whatever be the outcome of the uniform editorial promotion examination for Level 8 to Level 16’’.
According to the letter, the unions have resolved that since dialogue and consultation to convince management on the grievances had failed, staff will withdraw their service with effect from September 25.
The letter was signed by Mr. Joseph Edeh, Chairman of NUJ and the Secretary, Mr. Johnson Eyiangho.
The Chairman of AUCPTRE, Mr Suleiman Haruna and the Secretary, Mrs Uduak Oputa, also signed.
Others are Mr Daniel Akpaphiare, RATTWAU Chairman and Mr. Deji Fadipe, Secretary.
The letter was copied to the permanent secretaries in the ministries of information and labour as well as the Head of Service of the Federation.
In his reaction to the issues raised, particularly that of NAN Conditions of Service, the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, as the Chief Executive of the agency, said he would not want to sign a document that would further compound the financial burden of the federal government.
He explained that the federal government was doing a lot of favour to NAN by paying salaries of staff.
“We are supposed to be a full-fledged commercial agency to earn our revenue and to pay salaries from that income.
“What I met on ground was that the CEOs before me persuaded the federal government to instead make the Agency semi-commercial.
“Since it is a knowledge-based agency, everybody ought to know that the agency is not making enough money to cover its overhead. And that money is the greatest constant challenge facing the Agency,’’ he said.
Commenting on the transfer allowance of the 20 members of staff raised by union, Onanuga explained that the affected personnel “knew from their heart of hearts’’ that they were cheating the system and the federal government for several years before they were discovered.
He explained that the staff were not justifying in any way, the salaries they were earning.
“If our Agency were in a private sector, the staff would have been sacked. But instead management decided to be magnanimous by asking them to report to the headquarters in Abuja and others to Lagos.
“Even as we talk most of them have nothing to do. It was part of the magnanimity that management resolved to pay them a third of their transfer allowance, which we paid in batches, because of the paucity of funds.’’
He explained that there was a time in NAN, because of the financial handicap, when personnel were paid just transport allowance when they were transferred.
On the promotion exercise, he expressed disgust with the position of the unions.
“I am ashamed as a journalist that the NUJ will be pushing that management should promote journalists, who cannot write good English or just simply incompetent.
“My position is that our job is like that of doctors and nurses and I have always asked staff to imagine a situation where we have killer doctors and killer nurses in our hospitals. Just think of the consequences of having toxic journalists in the newsroom.’’
He explained that he intended to run NAN with competent writers who “can stand on their own’’ anywhere in the world, and not people who could not spell the name of the President of Nigeria or that of China.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), LOGO
By Auwal Mohammed
Gombe (Nigeria) — Nigeria’s anti corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says it has arrested the Executive Secretary of Gombe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Danlami Arab Rukuje, for alleged involvement in diversion of materials meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
A statement made available to Journalists in Gombe by the Agency, said the arrest followed a tip-off received by the Intelligence and Special Operations Section (ISOS) of the office.
According to the statement, the materials diverted include cans of paints and bags of cement meant as building materials donated to the state by the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiatives (PCNI), never made it to the IDP camps.
They added that investigations revealed that they were, instead, diverted to other areas including markets, for sale.
A team of operatives acting on the information immediately swung into action, and located shops where the materials were being sold. The Gombe State Fertilizer Grinding Plant where some of the materials were kept was also raided. A store keeper at the state’s Emergency Agency, Isa Garba, was subsequently arrested.
Further investigations, led to the arrest of a staff of the state’s Fertilizer Grinding Plant, Mu’azu Suleman KT.
The suspects will be charged to court, as soon as investigations are concluded, they were released on bail to reliable sureties.
Kaduna State government has reminded members of the public of a fabricated minutes of meeting in circulation in the social media meant to cause division along region and religious lines in the state.
Spokesman to the state governor, Samuel Aruwan, in a statement issued Wednesday in Kaduna said, “A piece of despicable fiction, titled ‘Emergency Meeting of the Strategic Committee on Political Developments in Kaduna State,’ is circulating on social media. It purports to be the minutes of a meeting chaired by Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai at which some key officials of the Kaduna State Government were present.
“The whole drift of the fabricated minutes is to stoke division, along the lines of region and religion. This fake news is clearly the handwork of desperados unhappy at the successes achieved in stabilizing southern Kaduna and restoring the normalcy that ordinary citizens need to build their lives.
“These merchants of strife and anarchy alleged in their concocted minutes of a meeting that never held that there were plans to dump our esteemed Deputy Governor, Architect Barnabas Yusuf Bala (Bantex), who is from the Kaduna South Senatorial District (Zone 3) and replace him with Alhaji Lawal Samaila Yakawada, a former SSG, who is from the same Kaduna Central Senatorial District (Zone 2) as the Governor.
“Every fair-minded reader of the fake minutes will see that it is a blatant case of religious baiting, meant to stoke up resentment, fear and distress amongst Christians and residents of Kaduna State from the Southern parts of the state.
“This is a criminal action, and should be condemned as incitement and hate speech by every lover of peace, and everybody who is eager to ensure that nobody is able to hide behind ethnicity or religion to further their political and personal agendas. It is time to finally defeat those who relegate and diminish humanity for the narrowness of their faiths or tongues.
“As is to be expected of a work of fiction, the fake minutes are riddled with falsehood. It includes a tale that the government has indicted some notable persons following findings of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the need to implement recommendations of the Commission as it concerned the said personalities.
“At the peak of the tensions in parts of Southern Kaduna, this government made clear that it would not set up any Commission of Inquiry into the matter, but treat it purely as a security and law enforcement issue.
“We have abided by that pledge and thwarted the expectations of the conflict merchants who thought that we would toe the old path of setting up an inquiry and proceed to settle and gratify persons who ought to be punished for promoting conflict.”
For the avoidance of doubt, the statement added, “The so-called meeting never took place; therefore the entire contents of the purported minutes are a mindless fabrication.
“Governor El-Rufai has not set up any Judicial Commission of Inquiry on the security challenges in southern Kaduna. Therefore, the issue of indicting some notable persons by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry is entirely false.
“Malam Nasir El-Rufai leads a government with a statewide constituency and a statewide mandate. He won in all the three senatorial zones to defeat the incumbent governor in 2015. Governor El-Rufai took 56 per cent of the votes in southern Kaduna. Those whose assumptions were shattered by that result appear to have drawn the mistaken conclusion that ethnicity and religion can once again be used to make the area their stronghold.
“The fake minutes refer to a Ministry of Lands and Survey. That ministry ceased to exist in June 2015, when Malam Nasir El-Rufai restructured ministries, reducing them from the 19 that he inherited. There is also nothing like a Board of Internal Revenue. The revenue agency in Kaduna State is the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS).
“Minutes of a meeting of senior government officials, allegedly taken by a senior official, cannot be so serially wrong about the names of government agencies and officials.
“We wish to categorically state that the sinister motive and agenda behind this fake minutes is to create religious and ethnic tension in Kaduna State. This is characteristic of the kind of politicking that has foisted a legacy of violent conflict on the state.
“We will not allow these forces of darkness to achieve their goal of setting the state on fire and dividing people. Governor El-Rufai will never be distracted from implementing his development agenda across the length and breadth of Kaduna State.
“We hereby appeal to citizens of the state to disregard the purported minutes as the divisive hoax of people frightened that the old order of division and spoils that sustained them is being crushed.
“While acknowledging the constitutional and fundamental rights to free expression, the government is compelled to refer this dangerous hoax been to the security agencies.
“Residents of Kaduna State are assured that this government will prosecute anybody that investigations tie to the production of this irresponsible fiction.”
Gombe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in Northeast Nigeria has commenced distribution of relief materials to 1092 household victims of floods which occurred in the month of July.
Head, Rescue and Rehabilitation at the Agency, Muhammad Garba, disclosed this while speaking during the presentation of relief materials to 53 households affected by floods in Gombe metropolis,
Head, Rescue and Rehabilitation of the Agency advised the people against building houses on water ways, as well as dumping of refuse in drainages, adding that in June and July, 23 persons were killed and five others missing.
Garba said that the agency will distribute 200 bags of rice, 137 bags of maize, 50 bags of millet, 20 of guinea corn, 65 jerry cans of palm oil, 92 pieces of five yards of brocade material, 130 pieces of wax material, as well as assorted household materials for onward distribution to victims affected by the July floods and the communal clash in Billiri town.
He explained that though the state government may not be in position to replace what each household lost to the floods, the gesture is meant to assist the victims and to give them hope.
Garba gave a breakdown of the communities affected to include: Ayaba in Billiri Local Government Area, where over 400 households were destroyed, Kufayi community in the same Billiri Local Government Area which was recently engulfed in a communal clash and Kamo ward in Kaltungo Local Government Area where an overflowing stream wreaks havoc over a hundred farmlands.
Another 435 households were also reportedly destroyed by floods in Dadin Kowa town in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area, adding that the agency has already distributed relief materials to 152 affected households in Kamo ward where beneficiaries received food items and clothing materials.
Commenting on behalf of beneficiaries from the Bolari area, Abdulsalam Muhammad expressed gratitude to the state government for coming to their assistance.
Nigeria's Minister of Health Isaac Folorunso Adewole
By Auwal Mohammed
Nigeria’s Minister of Health Isaac Folorunso Adewole
Nigeria Diocese of the Anglican Communion Gombe State northeast of the country has appealed to Federal Government to embark on a holistic reformation of the health sector by providing modern medical equipment as a way of reducing medical tourism of Nigerians to foreign countries.
They made the call in the communiqué after its sixth synod which ended at the Christ Anglican Church Gombe, and signed by Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Reverend Henry Ndukuba, and made available to Journalists in Gombe.
He urged Nigeria to take the issue of enhancement of welfare packages of medical Doctors as a matter of national importance, adding that doing this would reduce industrial action and brain drain that has bedevilled the health sector of the country.
The communiqué also called on the Government to entrench true federalism by reflecting federal character in appointments and revenue allocation to different tiers of government.
It called for the restructuring of the country to ensure equity, unity and progress to assuage the incessant calls for secession and militancy in almost all parts of the country.
On the current strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), it said the federal Government should as a matter of urgency resolve all the lingering issues pertaining the strike to avoid jeopardizing the future of Nigerian students.
It also spoke on the increasing calls for the upward review of minimum wage by workers saying “the minimum wage of eighteen thousand naira is no longer realistic in the face of present economic situation in the country, it therefore calls on the Federal Government to constitute a committee for the purpose of upward review of the minimum wage”.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption Some 60,000 people are reported to have been detained in a crackdown on dissent since 2013
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has given a “green light” to security forces to routinely torture political detainees, Human Rights Watch says.
Its new report alleges the interior ministry has developed an “assembly line” of abuse to collect information and prepare often fabricated cases.
Officers beat suspects and use electrical shocks and stress positions with “almost total impunity”, it says.
The government has denied allegations of widespread and systematic torture.
It has blamed abuses on individuals and said they are held accountable.
The 63-page report released by Human Rights Watch on Wednesday says Mr Sisi, who led the military’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 following protests against his rule, is pursuing political stability “at any cost”.
The alleged abuses, it concludes, probably amount to a crime against humanity.
In the past four years, more than 1,000 protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces, at least 60,000 people are reported to have been arrested or charged, hundreds have been handed preliminary death sentences, and hundreds more have gone missing in apparent forced disappearances.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption The primary target of the repression has been the Muslim Brotherhood, activists say
Most of them have been supporters of Morsi’s Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, but liberal and secular opposition activists have also been targeted.
HRW researchers interviewed 19 former detainees and the family of a 20th detainee who said they were tortured between 2014 and 2016, as well as Egyptian defence and human rights lawyers.
The former detainees alleged that the torture sessions began with security officers using electric shocks on a blindfolded, stripped, and handcuffed suspect while slapping and punching them or beating them with sticks and metal bars.
If the suspect failed to give the officers the answers they wanted, the officers increased the power and duration of the electric shocks and almost always shocked the suspect’s genitals, they said.
Officers would then hold detainees in two types of stress positions for hours at a time and continue to beat, electrocute and interrogate them, they added.
A 29-year-old accountant, who was given the pseudonym “Khaled”, told HRW that he was tortured for almost six days in Alexandria in 2015. Officers forced him to read a prepared confession, which they filmed, stating that he had burned police cars on the orders of the Brotherhood, he said.
Image copyrightReutersImage caption Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s government acknowledges there have been “individual” cases of torture
“Khaled” alleged that when he told a prosecutor that he had been tortured, the prosecutor replied that it was none of his business and ordered him to restate the confession or face further abuse.
“You’re at their mercy – ‘Whatever we say, you’re gonna do’. They electrocuted me in my head, testicles, under my armpits. They used to heat water and throw it on you. Every time I lost consciousness, they would throw it on me,” he said.
Another former detainee alleged that police “repeatedly raped” him with a stick.
HRW said prosecutors had officially investigated at least 40 torture cases since 2013, but that they represented a “fraction of the hundreds of allegations made”. In only six cases were guilty verdicts won against interior ministry officers, all of which remain on appeal.
“President Sisi has effectively given police and National Security officers a green light to use torture whenever they please,” said Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director. “Impunity for the systematic use of torture has left citizens with no hope for justice.”
HRW said President Sisi should direct the justice ministry to appoint an independent special prosecutor empowered to inspect detention sites, investigate and prosecute abuses by security services, and publish a record of action taken.
This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
The National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS) has commended Nigerian Air Force (NAF) for sustained efforts in the fight against terrorism in the North East as well as containing other forms of security challenges across the country.
National President of NCWS, Gloria Shoda made the commendation when she led a delegation of the Association on a courtesy visit to the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, at the NAF Headquarters in Abuja.
Mrs. Shoda stated that the Association strongly believes in the efforts of the NAF towards restoration of lasting peace in the North East. She described the NAF air operations as commendable and deserving of national applause.
“On behalf of the Nigeria women we want to express appreciation and gratitude to the NAF for its noble and patriotic efforts to be a model fighting force to defend Nigeria’s airspace, especially the insurgency in North East Nigeria,” she said.
The NCWS President also used the opportunity to commiserate with families of officers and men who lost their lives in the line of duties. ‘‘We offer condolences to the families of fallen heroes especially, the wife of the instructor pilot who lost his life in a recent air mishap”.
Responding, the CAS lauded NCWS for adding value to the society, especially as it pertains to women advocacy.
Abubakar also appreciated the Association for its condolences and goodwill message over the recent air mishap, describing it as unfortunate incident and a reminder of the hazards associated with the flying profession.
The CAS says NAF remains gender sensitive, as the Service could boast of significant number of female officers, some of who are pilots that are excelling, informing the delegation of the establishment of new girls’ schools, as part of efforts to promote girl-child education.
According to the CAS, aside from its air operations in the Northeast and other parts of the country, the NAF was also involved in numerous humanitarian programmes, some of which are targeted at widows.
He said NAF had created skills acquisition programmes and that about 150 each had graduated from the Scheme in Makurdi, Maiduguri and Lagos while another 150 would soon graduate in Port Harcourt.
The CAS then pledged the willingness of the NAF to support the Association’s activities, particularly in the Northeast and other part of the country.
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole has directed Chief Medical Directors/ Medical Directors (CMDs/MDs) of Federal Hospitals to immediately engage the services of Locum Doctors to argument the services of Consultants, NYSC Doctors and Doctors on Internship pending the resolution of the on-going strike action by the Resident Doctors.
