Doctors Suspend 7-Day Warning Strike In Osun

Osun Chapter of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has directed members working with the state government to resume work, after a seven-day warning strike, over salary arrears and poor working condition.According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the doctors began the strike on September 18, 2017.

The directive for resumption of work was contained in a communiqué jointly signed by the NMA Chairman, Dr. Tokunbo Olajumoke and Secretary, Olalekan Ajayi. Osun NMA said the strike was suspended due to the intervention of well-meaning stakeholders, who assured the association that the state government would address their grievances.

The association said the strike became necessary because of the poor condition of facilities in state hospitals and poor welfare.

Meanwhile, the state government has described the attack on its Commissioner for Regional Integration, Bola Ilori, in Akure, Ondo State as barbaric, reprehensible and an assault on the sovereignty of the state. Ilori was part of the delegation that presented Osun’s position at the All Progressives Congress (APC) public forum on true federalism and restructuring in its mission to get views of the people of Ekiti, Ondo and Osun states.

Media Adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Sola Fasure, in a statement, said the attack on Ilori, by some hoodlums was reported to have been political motivated and sponsored by a top-ranking Ondo State Government cabinet member. Fasure noted that the attack was indirectly meted on Osun state that Ilori represented at the programme and called on the law enforcement agencies to fish out and bring to book perpetrators of the attack, no matter how powerful the sponsors could be.

He also wondered whether the comment of Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Yemi Olowolabi, that the Osun delegate was the aggressor who had come to the venue of the event to cause trouble, was diplomatic enough.

The statement noted that such remarks could cause disaffection between the two sister states, which have lived without any rancour towards each other for years since the creation of both states.