By Adadareporters
Workers of the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu, have dissociated themselves from an alleged ‘sponsored’ press conference where a vote of confidence was passed on the hospital’s medical director, Dr Monday Nwite Igwe.
The workers, under the aegis of the Joint Congress of the hospital, said those behind the vote of confidence were hired to cause disaffection in the union.
The congress, in a release signed by its speaker, Ogugua Igwe, said it did not send any person or persons to represent the members at the conference, adding that, ‘they are not speaking for the staff of the hospital, rather they are representing themselves’.
It read in part, “They are just show-men that will call some people and take pictures or video and be singing the praises for the medical director. They are sycophants whose tenure in our union has expired; some of them are on interdiction.”
The congress indicted the medical director of the hospital, accusing him of corruption. Quoting the congress, “The medical director is the problem in the hospital. He is spending tax payers’ money, seeking cheap popularity by sponsoring persons to sing his praises.
“Those people he said that are the union leaders do not speak for the staff. Some of them are the people who benefited from his illegal employment. Some are on interdiction; some went to school without permission; some are on double salary from the federal government.”
The congress claimed the hospital’s managing director sponsored the press conference to ‘distract the public following recent attempt by police from Zone 13 to arrest him’.
According to the release, “The MD is trying to distract the general public from the real issues. His wife is in UK studying nursing while he shut down the school here to the detriment of the students as he posted all the academic and non-academic staff of the school to the wards.
“He wants to be the principal and medical director at the same time. The medical director is polarising the hospital. The general congress will stand firm against any stooges of the medical director. Let us look at the main issues in the hospital rather than pursuing shadows.
“There is an institutional breakdown in the leadership of the hospital. All the HODs of the hospital should be engaged to unfold the root cause of the problems in the hospital rather than the MD using some staff to sing his praises. The coalition of civil societies is living up to its expectations in rising up to the occasion in its responsibilities to stop injustice and defend the oppressed in the hospital.”
The workers of the hospital, under the aegis of Health Sector Unions, on Tuesday, had purportedly unanimously passed a vote of confidence on the MD.
They claimed there ‘is no crisis in the health institution as it is peaceful and workers are happy with the present administration’.
The workers, who spoke to newsmen in a press conference after an enlarged meeting of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), and Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) of the hospital, urged the federal government to sanction dissident staff members who they alleged ‘have been working hard to impede progress of the hospital’.
Dr Jane Nnabuchi, chairman of MDCAN, said, “Our collective attention has been drawn to the stage-managed protest that happened during the evening hours of August 30 in front of our hospital’s main gate.
“We hereby debunk the stage-managed protest by a group of unverifiable Civil Society Organisations alleging that there is no peace in the hospital and that the workers are unhappy alongside other baseless allegations leveled against the MD, Mr Igwe.
“We hereby state categorically that the piece of information is not only false, but was made to mislead the general public and to cause confusion.”
