By Olukayode Michael, Maiduguri
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme medical corps in
Borno State on Monday protested non-payment of allowance promised by the state
government.
The Batch B NYSC members who matched peaceful on the Borno State Government
House, Maiduguri, told journalists they are yet to be paid for four months
allowance promised by the state government.
One of them, Cornelius Azi, said the former governor, Kashim Shettima had
promised to pay N100,000 to each of the medical NYSC doctors and N50,000 to
other medical corps members, but the payment has stopped since December after
some initial payments.
He lamented that the government is owing; January, April, May and June.
Azi said they have written to the government through the ministry of health but
the government is yet to respond. He appealed to the government to approve the
backlog to discourage medical corps members from seeking redeployment from the
state.
He said the state has about 64 medical
corps members including doctors, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and
nurses, which forms over 50 percent of the medical workforce of the
state.
He said: “Often times, we work extra hours due to shortage of medical personnel
in the state health facilities. We have explored all alternative ways of
dispute resolution but they haven’t yielded results. We appeal to the
government to honour its promise.”
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Alhaji Mustapha Alau who later
addressed journalists, said the governor has already directed the ministry of
finance to pay the corps members. He said the ministry of health will soon
compute the outstanding balance of the payment and number of affected corps
members for payment.