Kaduna State Governor El-Rufai has authorised the state’s Ministry of Health to relieve all nurses below Grade Level 14 for embarking on the unlawful strike organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress
The Governor also directed the state’s Ministry of Health to place an advert for the immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace the dismissed.
The NLC commenced an industrial action in the state on Monday on the sacking of over 7,000 civil servants in the state.
According to the government, sacking the public servants has become imperative due to dwindling financial resources and higher wage bills which have become unsustainable.
In a statement signed by the Spokesman to the Governor, Muyiwa Adekeye on Tuesday, “… the Ministry of Health will dismiss all nurses below GL 14 for going on an unlawful strike.”
Their salaries will be given as extraordinary occupational allowances to the health workers who are at their duty posts to fill the gap of those absconding from duty.
The Ministry of Health has been directed to advertise vacancies for the immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace those dismissed.
The government insists that the NLC strike has disrupted key economic activities in the state which have no connection to the NLC demands, including banks and hospitals.
In Tuesday’s statement, the state government said reports from Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital disclosed that some identified nurses disconnected the oxygen supply of a two-month-old baby in an incubator on Monday.
The statement added that the names of the three nurses from the Special Baby Care Unit (SBCU) who were involved in this despicable act have been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice to initiate prosecution for attempted murder or murder “in the event we lose the baby.”
