The Kogi State Chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has suspended its 72-day old strike.
The suspension according to NMA was as a mark of honour to the NMA National President, Prof Mike Ogirima following his plea to the Congress to suspend the strike to enable further negotiation with the Kogi State Government.
Recall that, doctors in Kogi state have been on strike since 7th January, 2018 over failure of the state government to pay doctors some of their outstanding salaries, promotion of its members, failure of the government to implement Revised CONMESS and retirement of Senior doctors yet to attain the statutory age or year of retirement.
Speaking after the Emergency Congress meeting of the Association that was held in Lokoja on Monday, the State NMA Chairman Dr Tijani Godwin, stated that the Congress had decided to suspend the strike also due to plea coming from the general public and the love doctors had for Kogi people who could not get the desired medical care in the State due to the industrial action.
Dr Tijani directed all doctors working with Kogi state Government to resume work as from Thursday 22nd March, 2018.
“The Congress also expected the state government to pay the arrears of salary owed doctors within the next one month, and address other issues that resulted in the strike to avoid another round of strike after the expiration of the one month of the suspension of the strike.
“The Congress also warned against any form of victimization of any NMA member that participated in the strike as such action with be resisted by NMA,” Dr Tijani noted.
Comments