Maiduguri University Hospital doctors still on strike- doctors’ leader

The doctors said they are concerned for their safety.

The doctors’ strike at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital has not been called off, the leader of the doctors has clarified.

The President of the Association of Resident Doctors at the hospital, Muhammed Yahaya, made this clarification in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.

Mr. Yahaya confirmed that the health workers met with the Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima, and other security chiefs in Maiduguri on Friday.

“They pleaded, but we told them that we have conditions and we have procedures for calling off the strike,” he said.

The doctor explained that for the strike to be called off, a congress had to be called. He said the doctors had no problem with the hospital management but were only interested in their safety.

The hospital staff went on strike after police officers stormed the hospital on Thursday and shot randomly destroying hospital property and injuring many workers. The police officers were protesting the hospital’s explanation that the dozens of corpse of dead officials brought to the hospital mortuary could not be attended to because the mortuary was filled.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that part of the demands of the doctors are full compensation to victims of the police rampage, total coverage of the medical bills of those injured, and that the police should always surrender their guns at the gate before they would be allowed to enter into the hospital premises.

The doctors also demanded a full apology by the police and a guarantee that the hospital would be safe for them.

Mr. Yahaya explained that the doctors had no problem with the Joint Task Force in the state.

“The JTF are very supportive of us. It is the mobile police that are making the place (the hospital) unsafe for us,” he said.

The Borno Police Commissioner, Yuguda Abdullahi, reportedly made the apology and agreed to the other terms. He also said the police officers that perpetrated the rampage had been detained and are serving the necessary punitive measures.