The Kaduna State Government on Tuesday ordered the sack of nurses below level 14 for joining a strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress.
The government has also directed the state’s Ministry of Health to place advertisements for immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace those dismissed.
The NLC commenced an industrial action in the state on Monday over the sack of over 7,000 civil servants in the state, a move rejected by the Governor Nasir El-Rufai administration.
According to the government, the sack of public servants has become imperative due to dwindling financial resources and higher wage bills which have become unsustainable.
“The Ministry of Health will dismiss all nurses below GL 14 for going on an unlawful strike,” a statement signed by a spokesman to the Governor, Muyiwa Adekeye, said on Tuesday.
“Salaries that could have gone to them are to be given as extraordinary occupational allowances to the health workers who are at their duty posts to fill the gap of those absconding from duty. The Ministry of Health has been directed to advertise vacancies for the immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace those dismissed.”
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The government insisted that the NLC strike has disrupted key economic activities in the state which have no connection to the NLC demands, including banks and hospitals.
In Tuesday’s statement, the state government said from Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital disclosed that some identified nurses disconnected the oxygen supply of a two-month-old baby in an incubator on Monday.
The statement added that the names of the three nurses from the Special Baby Care Unit (SBCU) who were involved in this despicable act have been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice to initiate prosecution for attempted murder or murder “in the event we lose the baby.”
Meanwhile, thugs disrupted an NLC rally led by labour chief Ayuba Wabba on Tuesday. Wabba said he informed the Department of State Services after he received earlier information of the plan to disrupt the protest.
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“Today is a very sad moment in the history of democracy in Nigeria,” he said. “Early in the morning today, we got credible information that El-Rufai has hired one Alhaji Hassan and some thugs to come and attack us. While we are here, they came but thank God we have chased them away because we have the number. We are not thugs And We Are Not Using Thugs we are Nigerian workers.”
Mr Wabba has been declared wanted by the Kaduna State government.
Photo Credit: Getty
