UMTH guards protest non payment of salaries

Private security guards deployed to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, on Monday staged a peaceful demonstration to protest non-payment of their three months salary arrears.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the protesting security guards, who are employees of Crown Guards Security Company, blocked the entrance to the hospital and denied members of staff and visitors entry.

Relatives were forced to park outside and walk their patients into the hospital.

Some of the protesters, who spoke to NAN, said that in spite of rendering essential services of securing the hospital since January, they were still being owed three months salaries, from March to June, and no explanation had been given to them on reasons for the non-payment.

It took the intervention of the military however, who met with the protesting workers at the hospital gate and pleaded with them to settle the issue amicably with hospital Management.

Reacting, Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, The UMTH Chief Medical Director, appealed to the protesting workers to be calm, saying that the hospital was doing its best to settle the issue with their company.

“My attention has been drawn to an incident at the hospital gate where Crown Security guards have blocked the gate and denied our personnel entry because they are staging a protest over non payment of their salaries arrears.

“The major challenge is that security and cleaning services have been outsourced by the Federal Government. They are now being run by private companies that are responsible for the payment.

“They are essentially not University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital Staff. Generally, we liaise and work with their companies.”

The CMD appealed to the Federal Government to come to their rescue, pay for the outsourced services so that it could settle the companies.

While promising that the hospital management was making efforts to ensure settlement of all arrears, Ahidjo appealed to the protesting workers to remain calm and not deny people access to essential health services.