Health workers shut ministry, want perm sec redeployed

The crisis in the Federal Ministry of Health over the alleged refusal of some of its directors to vacate office after retirement took a different dimension yesterday as the workers shut the ministry and demanded the redeployment of the Permanent Secretary, Amina Shamaki.

The Guardian had exclusively reported the brewing tension and the several meetings of the labour unions preparatory to an industrial action.

Subsequently, the civil servants marched to the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to press home their request, accusing Shamaki of complicity in the entire crisis.

A Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Head of Service, Innocent Ogbonoya, who confirmed the incident, noted that his boss was aware of the development and had initiative move to resolve the issue amicably.

The workers, who came out in their numbers, marched from the ministry to the opposite end of the Federal Secretariat that houses the Head of Service.

They also accused the Permanent Secretary of high-handedness and alleged connivance with some directors to institute legal action against the ministry.

The civil servants also accused her of incompetence and overbearing tendencies.

Coordinator of the workers’ union, Hassan Habba described the situation as “the Ministry of Health is burning.”

He narrated how the directors had allegedly been working with Mrs. Shamaki even after allegedly attaining retirement age.

“The Permanent Secretary encroaches on the responsibilities of Director of Finance and Accounts on funds disbursement and also interferes with activities of Human Resources Department in the ministry. This shows that the Permanent Secretary doesn’t know what she is doing. What is the use of Human Resources? That is the mandate of Human Resources. The mandate of DFA is to disburse money. In our own scenario, it is DFA that is even challenging us…,” he alleged.