Lagos Doctors Continue Strike As NUPENG Calls Off Solidarity Strike Action In Lagos

By SaharaReporters, New York

Striking Lagos doctors this morning said they are not returning to work yet as the reinstatement decision of the Lagos State Government remains a ruse.

Chairman of the Medical Guild in Lagos, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote says the reinstatement order is still like any order news from around town to them, as they have not been formally contacted by the Lagos State Government to either recall them to work or to make known the state government’s willingness to implement the agreement which caused the crisis in the first instance.

“The only thing we have heard is that we are being asked to go to the Health Service Commission to regularize our status, but that is not our own”, Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote said this morning.

Accusing the Lagos State Government of deceiving the people, Chairman of the Lagos State Medical Guild complained that the State Government is only deceiving the people with media hype. “Regularizing our status as the Health Service Commission requests from us is like applying for the jobs afresh or reapplying. That is not acceptable to us”, the guild chair  declared.

Regarding the Lagos state government’s propaganda, Dr. Odusote added, “I don’t understand why the government is just deceiving the people. They did not recall us and have not said anything about the CONMESS agreement. They cannot just say something by the words of mouth and expect us to go back to work”.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Gas workers, [NUPENG] has called off the strike it embarked upon earlier in the week to show solidarity with the sacked doctors.

Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of NUPENG, Mr. Tokunbo Korodo said NUPENG has achieved its purpose. “We have tried our best. Our aim is to ensure that the mysterious way the doctors were sacked is reversed. Other issue is between our doctor colleague and the State Government”, said Mr. Tokunbo Korodo this morning.

On its own part, the National Association of Resident Doctors [NARD] maintains the warning strike that started on Thursday across the federation. President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos State, LASUTH wing, Dr. Saheed Babajide confirm that members of the NARD will continue to stay away from their jobs until the agreement reached with their striking colleagues in Lagos State is implemented to its fullest.

Also reacting to the reinstatement of the doctors by the Lagos State Government this morning, secretary of a pro-labour organization, Comrade Abiodun Aremu believes that the Lagos State Government is not addressing the issue that brought about the crisis yet. “They have only reversed their illegality. They have not answered the major question that brought about this strike action. The doctors did not go on strike because of a sack order, and Government’s reversal of its illegality has not addressed the issue”, Comrade Aremu commented this morning even as he condemned the manner of the purported reinstatement, “It’s not proper that an ACN party leader will just give an order that doctors should go back to work. The issue is between the Lagos State Government and the doctors”, added Abiodun Aremu.

Public hospitals in Lagos metropolis have remained without medical operations as the doctors claim they have not resolved to return to work.