Daily Independent Online.
*
Monday,July 19, 2004.
Medical doctors
suspend strike in Kwara
By Dele Moses
Special
Correspondent, Ilorin
Medical doctors in the employ of Kwara
State government have suspended their strike following the intervention of Governor Bukola Saraki.
The medical doctors had last week embarked on an indefinite strike in
protest against unpaid allowances and disparity in the salaries of the new and
old doctors.
But Governor Saraki quickly intervened by
summoning the state Head of State, Alhaji Yusuf Daibu, Commissioner for Health,
Dr. Bola Olaosebikan and permanent secretary, Ministry of Health and the state
branch of Nigeria Medical Association for the purpose of redressing the
situation.
The state Chairman of the Association of
Medical and Dental Officers, Dr. Isaac Oludipe, announced the suspension of the
strike action after a five-hour meeting with the commissioner for Health and
officials of the Ministry of Health.
During the meeting, Oludipe called for the
establishment of a Health Service Commission in the state to cater for the
well-being, professional issues, growth and development of the health sector.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Deputy
Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association in the state, Dr. I.F. Abdul, commended
Saraki for living up to expectation as a medical doctor, describing the
governor’s achievements in the health sector within the last one year as
a pride to the entire medical profession.
Reacting to the suspension of the strike,
the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, commended the medical
doctors for their patriotism and commitment to well-being of the state.
The commissioner urged
the doctors and other health workers in the state to always be patient in their
demands, assuring that the government would always strive to meet their
request.
