Osun doctors protest over unpaid six months’ salaries

Doctors working in Osun State Government hospitals, on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest to the House of Assembly, Osogbo over unpaid six-month salary arrears.
The doctors, who carried placards with various inscriptions, sang different anti-government songs to the Assembly Complex.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards included “doctors are suffering, patients are dying’’, “Aregbesola answer the striking doctors’’, “PMB deliver us from tyranny in Osun’’, among others.
The doctors had on September 2015 embarked on strike over unpaid salaries, remittance of outstanding cooperative and contributory deductions.
The doctors are also asking government to implement the revised CONMESS circular for medical and dental officers in the state.
Dr Suraj Ogunyemi, the state Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), while addressing the lawmakers, said it was unfortunate that doctors in the state are been subjected to inhuman treatment by the state government.
Ogunyemi, who appealed for urgent intervention, said the last time doctors in the state collected full salary was September 2015.
He said the doctors staged the protest to the legislature to call the attention of the lawmakers to the plight and suffering of the doctors in the state.
Ogunyemi said if the state government failed to meet their demands, doctors in private and federal hospitals might be forced to join the strike.
He, however, said the association would on Wednesday embark on a three-day warning strike, involving all doctors working with the Federal Government.
“We strongly believe that as the true representatives of the people , you will use your good offices to intervene urgently to save the good people of Osun from further agony,” he said.
Responding, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Akintunde Adegboye, said members of the Assembly would meet with the executive arm of government to discuss the issues.
Adegboye, however, appealed to the doctors to call off the strike to allow negotiation to continue.
The lawmakers and the doctors, who later met in camera, agreed to meet again on February 17, for further negotiation.