The workers during session
The workers of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu comprising various health unions in the hospital have passed a vote of confidence on the Medical Director Prof. Monday Igwe.
The workers, on Tuesday, said that there “is no crisis in the health institution as it is peaceful and workers are happy with the administration of the Medical Director, Prof. Igwe”.
The workers, who spoke to newsmen in a press conference, were drawn from Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), and Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) of the hospital.
Dr Jane Nnabuchi, Chairman of MDCAN, said that the unions were distancing themselves from and condemning the stage-managed protest of Aug. 30, 2023 at the hospital; and the attempted unauthorized “arrest” of Igwe on Thursday, Sept. 14, in the hospital.
Nnabuchi, who spoke on behalf of the various unions, said: “Our collective attention has been drawn to the stage-managed protest that happened during the evening hours of Aug. 30 in front of our hospital’s main gate.
“We hereby debunk the stage-managed protest by a group of unverifiable Civil Society Organisation alleging that there is no peace in the hospital and that the workers are unhappy alongside other baseless allegations leveled against the Medical Director, Prof. Monday Igwe.
“We hereby state categorically that the piece of information is not only false, but was made to mislead the general public and to cause confusion.”
The chairman noted that the stage-managed protest was done by alleged thugs hired to discredit and destabilize the Medical Director and our hospital’s activity.
She said: “We want to challenge anybody on that protest video circulating around to provide any proof of identity as Staff of the hospital or student of the School of Post Basic Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing of our Hospital joining the stage-managed protest.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the publication and the perpetrators of this dastardly and worthless act, but we are issuing a rejoinder to stop them from misleading the general public and most importantly, to put the information in the proper perspective.”
Collaborating, Dr Ferguson Mbachu, President of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) in the hospital, said that on Sept.14 the hospital witnessed a sponsored attempt at harassing and abducting its Medical Director under the guise of “arrest” by three unidentified police officers.
Mbachu noted that the three unidentified police officers came with an unmarked sienna vehicle from Awka in Anambra.
He said: “The situation created a scene and disrupted the activities of the hospital community and would have escalated to an uglier scenario if not for the intervention of Enugu State Police Command.
“It is worthy of note that unions from our hospital have written to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on several occasions in the past regarding the obnoxious activities of a particular staff.
“This staff of School of Post Basic Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing of our hospital is behind all the negative activities in the hospital since 2015 and efforts to get the ministry officials on his activities have been to no avail.”
Mbachu said that the Federal Government and of course the general public are advised to disregard the publication by this staff, and his cohorts whose “aim is to drag the name of the peaceful and hardworking Medical Director in the mud”.
“The members of staff have been enjoying peace, infrastructural and human capacity development since the inception of Igwe’s leadership in 2019. This is verifiable,” he added.
