Lokoja, January 30, 2025.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja (FTHL), Dr Olatunde Alabi, has purportedly shun the invitation extended to him by the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command, over the recent unrest at the hospital.
The Kogi State Police Command, had on Wednesday invited CMD and Management of FTH Lokoja, for stakeholders’ meeting over what it describes as “the general security situation within the hospital premises”.
The meeting which was later adjourned after hours of waiting left many in shock as the CMD, Dr Olatunde Alabi and all the management staff shunned the invitation of the CP.
A letter sighted by our Reporter on Wednesday in Lokoja, titled ” Letter of Invitation” and signed by Ahijo Lawson, Assistant Commissioner of Police, State Intelligence Department, Kogi State, invited the CMD, the ARD President and other members of the association to security meeting.
The letter reads: “In view of the general security situation within the premises of the Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja (FTHL), which if not immediately addressed may lead to breach of peace within the facility with attendant consequence to the security of live and property of members of staff and the patients.
“In light of the forgoing, you are invited along with other stakeholders to a security meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command, and the management team of FTHL Lokoja, through the undersigned”.
However, the stakeholders’ security meeting could not hold as neither the CMD nor any of his management staff honoured the Police Invitation. The meeting was thereafter adjourned after hours of waiting.
It would be recalled that Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja (FTHL), on Monday embarked on a protest demanding the immediate reinstatement of its suspended President, Dr. Jimoh Umar.
The doctors, who carried placards with various inscriptions, demanded the FTHL management to effect the directive of the Federal Government through the Minister of Health, Prof. Ali Pate, approving the reinstatement of the suspended ARD President.
Dr Umar, was suspended for actions he carried out as a head of a union that was a collective decision of all the resident doctors of the hospital in 2024 by the management of FTHL.
However, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate through the Permanent Secretary, Ms Kachollom Shangti Daju, approved the reinstatement of Dr Jimoh Umar in a letter to the CMD, dated December 12, 2024.
The letter, according to the ARD, got to the FTHL on January 11, 2025, but the CMD, Dr Olatunde Alabi, has deliberately refused to effect the content of the letter as directed by the Minister.
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