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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, has once again spoke on the lingering crisis at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile Ife, over the alleged job racketeering that has led to the non-payment of some workers for almost a year.
Pate, in a statement posted on the X handle of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, explained reasons for the delayed action on the matter, saying the ministry is working out the possibilities of addressing the issue.
The ministry had in November 2023 confirmed the indictment of some officials of the teaching hospital including a former Acting Chief Medical Director, Prof Afolabi Owojuyigbe, for allegedly engaging in job racketeering.
The ministry said an investigative panel led by Aderemi Azeez found that Owojuyigbe carried out over-employment in the hospital, without provision in the personnel budget.
The panel disclosed that Owojuyigbe, a Consultant anaesthetist, employed over 1,973 staff against the waiver of 450 vacancies granted to the hospital by the federal government in the 2022 employment process.
Owojuyigbe and his accomplices are therefore culpable of job racketeering, according to the panel.
As a result of the development, many of the employed workers have not received their salaries for about a year since their employment. The government is, however, insisting that the employment is illegal and that the it has no money to pay the “illegal employees.”
However, the affected workers have taken to social media to accuse the government of subjecting them to penury.
They said the ministry is deliberately delaying the process to frustrate them out of the job.
But the minister said the ministry is still working to resolve the issue, saying many of those illegally engaged are non-clinical workers “and there is no money in the hospital to pay them.”
In the statement, Pate alleged that many of the job seekers and their sponsors influence “peddlers and made illegal transactions to secure the illegal positions.”
He clarified that “the issue is primarily an OAUTH mismanagement of employment, with collusion between a few civil actors in the institution, some corrupt individuals and many desperate job seekers.”
He said OAUTH was reportedly approved to recruit 450 health workers but “unfortunately, almost 2000 additional employment /job offers were granted above the number.”
“Now, the quandary is how to tease out the truly legally employed versus the illegal ones,” he said.
Pate further explained that the ministry will soon announce “some of the difficult decisions while avoiding embarrassment for the innocent as much as possible.”
He pleaded with those employed illegally to “quietly consider moving on while we find ways to resolve for the more innocent caught in the mess.”
Owojuyigbe was appointed the Acting CMD of the teaching hospital in March 2022, after the then substantive CMD, Prof Victor Adetiloye, a professor, completed his term.
Aside Owojuyigbe and Tajudeen, who were suspended in July 2023, the hospital’s Director of Establishment, Lekan Ganiyu, was also suspended.