By Ademola Adegoke, Abuja
There has been a frenzy of activities all day in District Hospitals owned by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) as relations of patients on admission within the facilities have been evacuating their sick loved ones to private hospitals or back home.
This followed information that resident doctors in the nation’s capital will tomorrow kick off a three-day warning strike to protest against the dismissal of about 127 health workers by FCTA authorities last Friday.
Three Managing Directors of District Hospitals, medical doctors, nurses,pharmacists, lab scientists and clinical staff were among those sacked.
Ironically, the same FCTA has been battling with brain drain syndrome as many of these same dismissed cadres have fled for greener pastures abroad over the years, with the authorities growing grey hairs on how to replace them –a hole they have still not plugged to date.
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) today announced the date of the planned warning strike.
The body decided on the strike option following an emergency congress meeting at Asokoro District Hospital, Abuja.
President of FCT ARD, Dr George Ebong, confirmed that the strike was necessary.
According to him, FCTA Civil Service Commission sacked the 127 without due diligence.
Dr Ebong lambasted the authorities for the action which he thumbed down as inhumane and unlawful.
Demanding their immediate reinstatement alongside prompt payment of April,2025 salaries of the axed staff, the doctors’ leader berated the Commission for not doing its job properly.
The ARD leader called for the immediate resignation of Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Mr Emeka Ezeh, stopping short of calling him incompetent.
Warning of a full blown strike if FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, and FCTA failed to meet their demands within the period of the warning strike, Dr Ebong said the association would further shut down all FCTA-owned hospitals in the nation’s capital.
The doctors’ leader said: “We are embarking on a three-day warning strike because most of the members were disengaged from service on Friday without due diligence. They were labelled as ghost workers, ex-employees, and absconders when, in fact, these colleagues of ours are still in the system working even until now.
“We are livid that the FCTA Service Commission will carry out such an inhuman decision without talking to the Health Management Board, Permanent Secretary of Health, Association of Resident Doctors, or Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN).
“It is not just doctors that are affected—nurses, pharmacists, and lab scientists, including clinical workers are affected too.
“The Managing Directors of these hospitals are not aware. In fact, three MDs are affected; 127 health workers are affected. If these numbers are ghost workers, so how do these hospitals operate? The hospitals would have collapsed. What is the staff strength of FCT hospitals?
“The affected health workers’ salaries were stopped without any prior notice. The salaries for last month. This is a clear act of insensitivity and injustice to health workers.
“We demand immediate salary payment for all the affected health workers; apology letters to the affected health workers; and the immediate resignation of the Chairman of the Service Commission, Mr. Emeka Ezeh.
“It is a three-day warning starting from tomorrow, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 8 am, and if within the space of three days (which is Friday, May 9, 2025), our demands are not met, we will go on an indefinite strike after an appraisal.”
