TheNewsGuru

Tag: Suspend

  • Why we may not suspend strike action now – Resident doctors

    …accuse FG of breaching agreements signed with NARD of Wednesday

    Hope that the ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) will be suspended was dashed on Friday as the federal government breached agreement reached with the doctors on Wednesday.

    Specifically, the government failed to pay the backlog of salary arrears to the doctors as it promised on Wednesday to effect within two days.

    Arikawe Adeolu, a member of the National Executive Council of NARD, confirmed to newsmen in Abuja on Friday that the government had reneged on the agreement.

    Mr. Adeolu, who is also the General Secretary of NARD at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, Abuja, said that as at the close of work on Friday, no member of the association had been paid.

    The meeting on Wednesday between the doctors and Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, a professor of medicine and his Labour and Employment counterpart, Chris Ngige, was to find ways on how to end the strike.

    The doctors are protesting the sack of some of their colleagues, non-payment of “skipping’’ entitlement, non-inclusion in the IPPIS platform and non-payment of their salary arrears.

    Following failure by the government to honour the agreement on payment of salary arrears, Mr. Adeolu said that the association would meet late on Friday to decide on next line of action.

    “Since we held the meeting with the two ministers, nothing new has happened. We were hoping that they will fulfil their end of the agreement so that we can call off the strike and continue negotiations,” he said.

    “But, up till now that I am speaking with you, nothing has happened; we are yet to be paid.

    “After the meeting we had on Wednesday, an agreement was reached. Some of the agreements reached cannot be fulfilled immediately except one; that is for the Federal Government to pay the backlog of salary arrears owed doctors across the country; it was agreed that these arrears would be paid latest on Thursday or Friday.

    “With this in mind, we scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday to discuss the next steps to take in order to call off the strike but to our dismay, we are yet to receive anything.”

    He said that the Friday meeting would be closed-door, and that the association would release a communique at the end.

    He, however, expressed optimism that the government would fulfil its part of the agreement so that the association could call off the strike.

  • NHIS Executive Secretary dares Osinbajo, minister, says ‘only Buhari can suspend me’

    The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf has rejected the recent directive by the Minister of Health to go on three months suspension.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Yusuf was last week ordered by the Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole to proceed on three months suspension to pave way for an investigation following petitions written against him.

    However, in a letter dated July 12, 2017 Usman gave reason for his inability to comply with the directive.

    According to him, under the Act setting up the scheme, the appointment and removal of the executive secretary is at the instance of the President.

    “Except removed from office by the President under the circumstances specified in the NHIS Act, my appointment is for a period of five years.

    ‘’This is subject to a further term of the same period at the discretion of the President,’’ Yusuf explained

    The embattled executive secretary, however said although the NHIS Act empowered the minister to give directive of general nature to the Governing Council of the scheme and could exercise presidential mandate in the absence of the council such powers did not include ‘’discipline, suspension or removal of the Executive Secretary of the Scheme from office’’.

    Usman, therefore added that ‘’ the directive in your letter under reference cannot find comfort under the said section of Presidential mandate’’.

    He further argued that the minister’s directive is not in compliance with the Public Service Rules as no prima facie case had been established against him in respect of the petitions referred to in the suspension letter.

    ‘’ The mere fact that there are pending petitions against a public officer which are yet to be substantiated does not constitute a ground for suspension under Public Service Rules.’’

    He said the petitions referred to by the minister were also being investigated by the ICPC, which was yet to submit its findings.

    ‘’In the light of the above, I wish to humbly urge that the Honourable Minister should allow the investigations of these petitions to follow due process,’’ he said.

     

  • I didn’t take N100m bribe to suspend Emir Sanusi’s probe – Kano Speaker

    The Speaker, Kano State House of Assembly, Kabiru Rurum, has denied a media report that he received N100m bribe to suspend the probe of Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammad Sanusi II.

    Rurum, on Tuesday in Kano, dismissed as false and an attempt to tarnish his image, the report by an online medium.

    He also gave the medium one week within which to retract the report and apologise to the State Assembly or face legal action.

    The speaker said the House would constitute a committee to investigate the matter, adding that the publishers must come before the committee to defend the allegation.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the state Assembly was divided over an alleged bribe received from industry mogul, Aliko Dangote, to suspend the probe of the emir.

    He said, “I wish to clearly make it known that the story is not true, but mere libelous and false information aimed at tarnishing my image and that of my colleagues.”

    According to him, the report is also targeted at creating tension and chaos among the lawmakers and ridicule the personality of Dangote.

    “The story was a fabrication, a tissue of lies and unjustifiable, because there was never a time I met with Dangote to discuss such an issue, not to talk of him offering us a bribe.”

    He explained that the intervention of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Northern governors and other notable Nigerians to stop the probe was channeled through the state governor and not directly to the Assembly.

    “It is a tradition that when such things happen, the governor gets in touch with us as one of the three arms of government.

    “Therefore, the governor forwarded his request letter, appealing for the suspension of the investigation on behalf of all the concerned citizens.” (NAN)

  • Just in: JAMB suspends 2017 UTME registration for 52 hours

    Just in: JAMB suspends 2017 UTME registration for 52 hours

    Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Abuja on Friday announced the suspension of registration for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for 52 hours.

    The decision was aimed at preventing any disruption during the conduct of the UTME mock examinations scheduled for Saturday.

    The examination body, which put the suspension hour between 8:00pm on April 7 (Friday) and 12:00am on April 10 (Monday), said one million candidates have registered for the exam so far.

    The Registrar/Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who made the announcement at a press briefing in Abuja, however said candidates could also go to banks, NIPOST, Interswitch or Remita to procure PINs for registration on Monday.

    According to him, there will be no sale of forms, registration and biometric capturing at the various centres in which the mock examinations would take place.

    ‎He said the mock examinations for interested candidates taking place on Saturday was intended to familiarise the candidates with the Computer-Based Test systems and generally forecast the challenges that may surface in order to proactively address them.

    Oloyede reassured the candidates that there was no need for worry or anxiety; adding that in the next one week, eligible and interested applicants will be successfully registered, as, already, 1,000,000 applicants have successful registered.

    While regretting all inconveniences caused as a result of the temporary closure of registration activities, the JAMB CEO assured everyone of the possibility of an extension of registration date‎, as, according to him, every applicant must be carried along.

    He said, ‎”Saturday April 8 , 2017 has been set aside for the Mock UTME. To seamlessly achieve this, the Board has s‎uspended all activities relating to the registration exercise in any CBT centre from 8pm today, being Friday April 7 2017 and to resume on Monday April 10 2017.

    ‎”There will be no sale of forms, registration and biometric capturing at the various centres in which the Mock Examinations are taking place. This however does not preclude any candidate from going to Banks, NIPOST, interswitch or Remita to procure pins for registration on Monday. This is to prevent any disruption of the process and conduct of the Mock Examination.

    “The Mock Examinations are intended to familiarize our candidates with the CBT systems and generally forecast the challenges that may be faced ahead in order to proactively address them. It is just a rehearsal for us and candidates who want to experience the situation to expect during the actual examinations.

    “Therefore, the sale of forms, registration and biometrics at CBT centres are to be suspended from 8:00 p.m. today till Monday, April 10, 2017. This notice is for the strict adherence of our officers and partners throughout the federation.

    ‎”While wishing the candidates and officials participating in the examination a successful mock exercise, we once again re-assure the candidates that there is no need for worry or anxiety. In the next one week, we believe it will be sufficient to capture the remaining candidates as about 1,000,000 applicants have successful registered.

    “No one will be left behind as the deadline may be extended if there are applicants who do not succeed at registering due to circumstances beyond their control.”

  • NUPENG suspends 3-day warning strike after meeting with FG

    NUPENG suspends 3-day warning strike after meeting with FG

    The leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has suspended its three days warning strike which started today (Wednesday) after reaching a consensus with the Federal Government, reports reaching TheNewsGuru.com can authoritatively confirm.

    The minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige who led the Federal Government’s delegation to the meeting said the government will enforce compliance by the oil companies with agreement reached with the unions in the oil and gas industry.

    The meeting which was conveyed by the minister was meant to provide lasting solution to the lingering industrial crisis in the sector.

    In Ngige’s words: “A lot of agreements have been reached but not complied with by the IOCs and the LOCs as petitioned by the unions.

    “It is even more painful and regretful that NNPC has also not lived up to their agreements.

    “So, the essence of the meeting is for us as re-conciliators stop the pending strike by NUPENG and PENGASSAN,’’ he said.

    Ngige also said the meeting was an intervention move to agree on timelines for the effective implementation of these agreements.

    “I also want to appeal to NUPENG to call off the strike so that we can discuss situation without duress,’’ he said.

    Mr Olabode Johnson, President of PENGASSAN, however, decried the non-compliance of agreements reached earlier with oil companies.

    “These oil companies have refused to respect the agreements reached between the Federal Government and the unions.

    “So, for this meeting to be fruitful there must be some level of compliance because PENGASSAN has also issued an ultimatum, which was also put on hold at the instance of this meeting.

    “If we are not fully satisfied at the end of this meeting then we have to go back and re-issue the ultimatum,’’ he said.

    On his part, the President of NUPENG, Mr Igwe Achese, said about 300 workers had so far been retrenched by these oil companies.

    Achese said several pleas made to avert these retrenchments by the oil companies fell on deaf ears.

    “We had asked ourselves why our members should be sacked on daily basis without due consultation. How long must things continue like this.

    “We have heard the government’s appeal to us to suspend the warning strike, the outcome of this meeting will make us to take a final decision on it,’’ he said.

     

  • I have been suspended over 20 times, yet I remain a member of the party – Senator Sani

    I have been suspended over 20 times, yet I remain a member of the party – Senator Sani

    The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has once again affirmed that no one can suspend him from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The Kaduna state chapter of the APC had axed the controversial senator following his fallout with the state governor, Nasir el-Rufai.

    Speaking with state house correspondents in Abuja on Friday, Sani described his suspension as a ruse, stating that he remains a member of the party.

    “I cannot be suspended. I am unsuspendable (sic), if there is any word like that. I remain a member of my party, If you simply feel uncomfortable with my words all you can do is to simply put some cotton on your ears so that it can block it,” he said.

    “And if you are not comfortable with seeing me physically, you simply need to use sunglasses but in every sense you can’t hide behind attempts to silence Shehu Sani. In fact, I have been so suspended up to about 20 times that my car doesn’t need any suspenders right now, each time they call it’s about to suspend.”

    Speaking of his strained relationship with el-Rufai, he said: “Well it’s a normal thing. You can be Siamese twins and then you may engage in combat, you can also be twins and then engage yourselves in disagreement and you can also be from the same house or family or same room but still disagree with each other.”

    “I think it’s a normal thing in a democracy to disagree.”

    “Well, it is foolish for anybody to start talking about 2019 when we are just less than two years into this tenure. What is most important to each and every one of us is to deliver on the mandate for which we have been elected whether you are a governor, senator, a member of house of representative, in whatever capacity,” he said.

    “But in the course of it, it is also normal that missiles will strike from here and there, it is normal in a democracy.”