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Fresh Crisis looms in Nigeria’s health sector as doctors threaten mass ‘sabbatical

Fresh Crisis looms in Nigeria’s health sector as doctors threaten mass ‘sabbatical

Follow @NigeriaPI Nigerian doctors have threatened to go on mass ‘sabbatical’ if the federal government accedes to the demand of other health sector workers. In what is clearly a continuation of the rivalry between doctors and other health workers, the doctors, under the banner of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, described the association of other health workers, JOHESU, as an ‘illegal body.’ The NMA declared its opposition to many of the demands made by JOHESU, describing them as unacceptable. The members of JOHESU are hospital workers apart from medical doctors and dentists. The NMA Chairman, Mike Ogirima, while addressing a news conference in Ilorin on Monday to mark the 2017 Physician Week, warned that doctors “will be compelled to take a sabbatical, if JOHESU does not contain its radicalism.” “Government should not allow itself to be intimidated by illegal bodies like JOHESU in the health sector; we expect each professional to stick to the ethics of their profession,” he said. The chairman also alleged that doctors are now endangered species in the communities and traditional hospital environment. “The value for money and hospitals titles have made the members of JOHESU to set up fellowship colleges with the aim of bearing the title of consultants,’’ he said. JOHESU embarked on a nationwide strike on September 20 to protest among other issues, salaries adjustments, promotion arrears, and improved work environment for its members. In compliance with the declaration of an indefinite strike by JOHESU, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, NANNM directed its members to stay away from all federal health institutions across the country. On the 9th day...
Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode ‘Constantly’ Breaching Airport Security Procedures – Sources

Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode ‘Constantly’ Breaching Airport Security Procedures – Sources

Follow @NigeriaPI Local former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, treats Nigeria’s airport security rules and procedures with disdain. Airline and airport sources told our correspondent that he habitually violates the procedures, particularly at airport security checkpoints in Lagos. Several concerned passengers also observated three separate trips between March and September this year when Mr. Fani-Kayode refused to submit himself for the routine security body check after he had triggered off metal detectors. They separately gave the dates of her observation as March 10, June 16 and September 16, affirming that the former Minister always offered security officials the same primitive and arrogant excuse that he was a former minister of aviation and as such could not submit to a search. On those occasions, she said, he was let through, unsearched, despite the groaning of other passengers. Airline and airport sources said Mr. Fani-Kayode has behaved in this manner for a long time. During our investigation, it was discovered that in April 2006, before he became a Minister, he was stopped from traveling by one Mr. Okuyiga who was at the time the Airport Manager of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport for refusing to submit himself to a security check. When Mr. Fani-Kayode became the Minister of Aviation two months later, we learned, he made his first task at that airport the redeployment of Mr. Okuyiga, leading to the resignation of the Airport Manager. One airline official who spoke anonymously claimed he has observed Hadi Sirika, the current Minister of Aviation, submit himself to the same screening several times and cannot understand why security officials cannot insist that Mr. Fani-Kayode...
Ondo State Police Rearrest Armed Robber

Ondo State Police Rearrest Armed Robber

Follow @NigeriaPI Ondo State police rearrested an armed robber awaiting trial, Kola Ogunbiyi, for committing a fresh robbery. Mr. Ogunbiyi was apprehended after robbing an Ondo State police inspector of his vehicle at gunpoint in Akure. The 35-year-old robber also robbed residents on the popular Mother and Child Hospital Road in the state. The culprit was apprehended alongside Oluwafemi Ayodeji by operatives from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Akure. Police sources told our correspondent that the duo were in a robbery gang that terrorized the people of Ondo and Ekiti states. They were paraded alongside twelve robbery suspects before journalists at the police headquarters on Igbatoro Road in Akure on Monday afternoon. Mr. Ogunbiyi, popularly called “Oloye,” had been committing crimes with his gang while awaiting trial in Ogbomoso. The Ondo State Police Command spokesperson, Femi Joseph, said that well-coordinated intelligence gathering operations led the police to Mr. Ogunbiyi and other criminals. He explained that the arrests were part of an ongoing onslaught to tackle crime in the state. According to him, the culprits were part of a five-man armed robbery gang who had been on the watchlist of the police. “The hoodlums confessed to the crime during our police investigation, and one AK-47 rifle was recovered from them along with a red motorcycle. “Now that the deviants have met their Waterloo, we shall charge them to court after all investigations have been concluded,” Mr. Joseph said. He vowed that there would no longer be any hiding places for criminals in Ondo State. During an interview with journalists, Mr. Ogunbiyi confessed to the crime for which he was...
N2bn fraud: Maina on the run

N2bn fraud: Maina on the run

Follow @NigeriaPI The embattled ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, who has been accused of complicity in a N2bn fraud, has gone into hiding. The fugitive, who is still on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for the alleged offence, went into hiding soon after news that the anti-graft agency had launched a manhunt for him became public. One of our correspondents gathered that Maina, who had been reinstated as an acting director in the Ministry of Interior, was to meet with yet to be identified persons in his office but apparently had a change of heart because he was nowhere near the office building when our reporter arrived at the office at 8.20am and at 2.00pm when he left. The office located at the Old Secretariat in Area 1, consists of a reception, a waiting room before a massive door leading up to the director’s office. The reception looked dreary while two young men in the waiting room fiddled with their phones as they conversed in low tones. Attempts to speak with the female secretary, who refused to give her name, failed as she rebuffed all questions. In response to enquiries about the whereabouts of her new boss, she snapped, “I don’t know where he is.” A source, who spoke to one of our correspondents, in confidence because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Maina travelled to Kano during the weekend and had given appointments to some persons to meet him at the office on Monday but went into hiding soon afterwards. The source said, “He planned to...

Dambazau lied, I played no role in Maina’s return — Head of Service

Follow @NigeriaPI The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, has countered the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, who on Sunday blamed her and the Federal Civil Service Commission for the reinstatement of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, to office. Mrs. Oyo-Ita said through a statement by her Assistant Director, Media Relations, Mohammed Manga, “The attention of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has been drawn to several media reports that the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has approved the reinstatement into the Federal Civil Service of Alhaji Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina and his subsequent posting to the Ministry of Interior. “The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation wishes to inform the public that the reinstatement and posting of Alhaji Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina never emanated from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. “Consequently, the purported reinstatement and posting by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation is totally erroneous and misleading.” Mr. Dambazau had in a statement by his Press Secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, denied responsibility for Mr. Maina’s recall to service. The statement explained that Mr. Maina “was posted few days ago to the Ministry of Interior by the Office of the Head of Service on an Acting capacity to fill a vacancy created following the retirement of the Director heading the Human Resources Department in the Ministry.” The minister blamed Mr. Maina’s recall on the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and...