Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Medical Corps members undergoing the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) have protested non-payment of allowance promised by the Borno State government.
The Batch B NYSC members who besieged the Maiduguri Goverment House, yesterday morning, alleged that they have not been paid four months allowance promised by the state government.
“The former governor, Kashim Shettima announced payment of N100,000 to each of the medical NYSC doctors and N50,000 to other medial corps members.
‘‘Unfortunately, the payment has stopped since December. Government is owing us January, April, May and June,” spokesman of the medial corps members, Dr Cornelious Azi disclosed.
He said they have written to the government through the ministry of health, but the government was yet to response. In order to discourage medical corps members from seeking redeployment from the state, Azi appealed to the government to approve payment of the backlog.
He said about 64 medial corps members including doctors, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and nurses formed over 50 percent of the medical workforce of the state.
“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,” he said.