Following the failure of the Abia State government to pay doctors their salaries, the national body of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has directed its Abia State chapter to deploy all legitimate means necessary to ensure prompt payment of their salaries.

The directive, which formed part of the resolutions reached at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the NMA, held recently in Benue State and contained in a communiqué, made available to newsmen over the weekend in Abuja.

Presenting the communiqué to newsmen, the NMA President, Dr. Francis Faduyile, lamented that doctors and health workers in the state University Teaching Hospital were being owed 13 months salaries, while those working in the state hospital management board were owed 10 months salaries by the government.

While explaining that some members of the NMA had staged a protest to demand for their entitlements, Faduyile noted that the national body would support whatever legitimate means deployed by Abia doctors to ensure their salaries were paid since every diplomatic measure by the NMA failed to yield results.

The communiqué states: “The NEC expressed its disappointment with the failure of Abia State government to pay salaries of doctors and other health workers. The NEC considered the action as highly provocative as it is against the tenets of civil service rules and natural justice.

“The NEC therefore called on Abia State Government to pay these accrued salaries to doctors and other health workers without further delay. The NEC directed NMA Abia State to ensure that the rights and privileges of all doctors and other health workers in Abia State are not trampled upon using all legitimate means at her disposal. The NMA national and all Nigerian doctors are solidly behind doctors in Abia State.” (New Telegraph)

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