Nasarawa docs probe colleagues over bribe allegation
Friday, 30 July 2010 00:00 Hir Joseph, Lafia

Officials of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Nasarawa State are probing 20 of their members for allegedly accepting bribes to violate the current strike by members of the association and the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) to press for CONMESS, a Federal Government approved salary structure.

Although ARD at the national level has called off the strike, the state chapter has continued with it, a resolution contained in a communiqué after an emergency meeting of the association on Monday.

Signed by state ARD chairman, Dr. Musa Abdullahi and Secretary, Dr. Attah Ombugadu, the communiqué also condemned what it called “fraudulent use of tax payers’ money in offering bribes to some doctors under the guise of an emergency medical rescue team which is non-functional.” The state government, according to the SSG, a week ago assembled a team of doctors for emergency rescue operation at the state specialist hospital in Lafia. But ARD which revealed that it uncovered a N280,000 per week “bribe” paid to the 20 doctors, petitioned the umbrella body, the NMA, to probe and sanction the doctors.

NMA chairman in the state, Dr. Usman Abe, confirmed the petition, saying, “the most unfortunate thing is that most of these doctors have not been in practice for long because they worked as administrative staff”, adding, “our probe revealed that some of them have been using Chloroquine to treat malaria, a practice which is against the Federal Government’s guideline of 2005.”