The Joint Health Sector Unions which went on strike last week says at least two of its members came under attack at Irrua Specialist Hospital in Edo state.
In a statement on Sunday, JOHESU said Fidelis Ogobor who chairs its union branch at the hospital was leading a tea to monitor compliance to strike when he was manhandled by Dr Wilson Ovienria, who chairs the hospital’s medical advisory committee.
JOHESU chairman Biobelemoye Josiah said Ovienria “stooped so low to have slapped Ogobor and destroyed a mobile phone belonging to another member Tune.”
The assaulted men are said to have notified the police.
JOHESU has called on health minister Isaac Adewole to warn doctors not to provoke its members.
Josiah said they have “remained calm since we called for strike and will remain so, while waiting patiently for government to do the needful.”
The union accuses Ovienria of continuing to “threaten to attack our union leaders and to sack workers.”
It said when resident doctors were on strike, none of its members “had any cause to have any provocative encounter nor interfere with the doctors”.
It insists no amount of provocation will intimidate members from continuing their fight against ‘discrimination, corruption, under – funding etc, until our demands are met.”
“We have declared "Operation Alligator Bite" as the code-name of the ongoing strike over the refusal of the Federal Government to implement series of MOUs, agreements and court cases which JOHESU has won at the National Industrial Court, including neglect of our members,” said Josiah.
The strike has left only doctors, who suspended theirs, in federal hospitals without nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and a full complement of health workers.
