…We will pay immediately – Akeredolu
Resident doctors at the University of medical sciences (UNIMED) teaching hospital, Akure Annex on Friday staged a protest over non payment of their salaries going to between four and five months arrears by the ondo state government.
The doctors who trooped out in a peaceful protest with different placards within the UNIMED lamented the maltreatment and neglect they were being made to face by the state government.
The protesting medical workers carried placards with different inscriptions, chanting solidarity songs.
The protest has grounded activities at the hospital amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on behalf of the protesting doctors, Dr Taiwo Olagbe said all steps made for government to reason with them over the payment of their salary had failed.
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They however gave the state government a week ultimatum to pay their owed salaries or they would embark on strike.
The Chairman of the association, Dr Shittu Abiola, said the doctors embarked on the protest because they were suffering unimaginable hardships and that every move to engage the government to address the issue was futile.
“We gave Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu seven days ultimatum to address our agitation or we will embark on an indefinite strike,” Abiola stated.
The General Secretary of the association, Dr Olagbe Taiwo, said that members of the association could hardly afford their daily bread and that they had resorted to trekking to work because of a lack of money to pay transport fares.
Meanwhile, Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has declared that the process of paying the outstanding salaries of the newly recruited Doctors at the State University of Medicine’s Hospital, UNIMEDTH, will commence immediately.
He disclosed this through his Twitter handle following the protest embarked on by the residents Doctors in Ondo State yesterday.
Akeredolu said: “I have just concluded an emergency meeting with the Head of Service to clarify and rectify this situation as it relates to newly recruited doctors. I have given approval to the commissioner of finance to raise the funds to commence payment of their arrears”.
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