Nigeria: Downsizing - Police Disrupts Health Care Workers Protest

[Snowy Owl]

Nigeria: Downsizing - Police Disrupts Workers Protest
http://allafrica.com/stories/200702150236.html
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Vanguard (Lagos)
February 15, 2007
Posted to the web February 15, 2007
Emmanuel Ulayi
Abuja


Pandimonium was averted yesterday in Abuja, as the police stopped members of the Medical and Health Workers' Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational, and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIA) from protesting over the planned downsizing in the health sector by the Federal Government.


Aggrivied by the action of the government, the workers vowed to embark on a three-day warning strike on a yet to be determined date insisting that if the ugly situation of severance of their members is not halted by the Bureau for Public Service Reform.

According to a letter signed by Commissioner of Police, Lawrence Alobi, the Police said the application for Police permit to hold a peaceful public protest rally over mass sack of health workers in the Federal hospitals throughout Nigeria was not approved.


The letter which read in part stressed "In fact, our intelligence report revealed that the proposed public protest rally will be hijacked by miscreants to cause mayhem and thereby disturbing the relatively peaceful atmosphere being experienced in the FCT and its environs."

"It is in view of this that your application is disapproved. This is done in the interest of public peace and security", he said.


To this end, Alobi advised the protesters to select five members of the executive to present the protest letter to the relevant authority. "The Police will also provide security to guarantee the safety of the selected five members who will present the said letter of protest to the designated offices". he said.


However, in an address to journalists later the General Secretary (MHWUN), Comrade Marcus Omokhuale noted that hundreds of their members in Federal Tertiary Health Institutions were being given unjustifiable letters of retirement in the name of Public service Reforms.
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