Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has suspended all paid staff – resident doctors, nurses, pharmacists and lab technicians – at the General Hospital in Ngala town for abandoning patients to an international non-governmental organisation, fhi 360.
Ngala town which was liberated from insurgents in 2015 is the headquarters of Ngala Local Government Area with an international land route into Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Central Africa.
Zulum’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, in a statement on Wednesday said the development followed a surprise visit to the hospital by the governor where he met only the NGO staff attending to many patients mostly internally displaced persons.
“The governor was disappointed to find out that in spite of the high turnout of patients, not one of the many government paid staff, from doctors down to clerical staff, was at the hospital as at 11am,” Mr Gusau said.
He explained that the governor was received at the hospital by the Field Coordinator of the fhi 360.
“This is a general hospital belonging to Borno State Government, unfortunately there is no single state government staff here to attend to all these patients, and we promptly pay all of them salaries.
“These humanitarian workers from the iNGO (fhi360) are supposed to complement the state government staff but not to completely take over the hospital.
“I am directing the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, if there is any staff on the payroll of this Hospital, to immediately suspend all the workers on government payroll.
“I will be back to this hospital, hoping to see the opposite of what I saw today,” Zulum was quoted saying.
While in Ngala, the governor also visited three schools and ordered the rehabilitation of classrooms destroyed by insurgents.
He also announced plans to resettle displaced persons in neighbouring communities of Logumani and Gajibo.
