Newsspecng

Covid-19: FCT public health workers owed 7 months allowance

Releated Post

Labour Party Chieftain support call by TY Danjuma for communities to arm and defend themselves Danjuma Attah, Gombe A chieftain of the Labour Party and Governorship candidate in the 2024 general elections, Keftin E Amuga, has reiterated to his people in Billiri, the call by General TY Danjuma on communities to stand up and defend themselves against terrorists and land grabbers. Keftin Amuga made the call in a press statement sent to our Correspondent and gave reasons for reiterating TY Danjuma’s call to the continued attack on his people in Billiri LGA of Gombe State Amuga, also the Gombe State Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, while condemning what he described as the barbaric, wicked and inhumane Easter Monday Suicide truck attack on the Christians faithful of Billiri, condoled families of victims of the attack. According to him, “this deliberately planned attack which left five dead and 13 injured is about the third one, two of which were deadly. Essentially the attack was born out of pure hatred and intended to maximize deadly impact on Christian faithful’s of Gombe State”, he stated. Recalling two similar attacks on Christian in the State in the past, the Easter celebrations in 2019 and the Christmas celebrations of 2024 when Christians were attacked by moving vehicles, Amuga said the recent attack during this year’s Easter celebrations indicated a pattern in the attack. He said, “the third and most current one which occurred on the 21st April, 2025 by another fanatic named Usman Muhammad aged 28, a resident of Afghanistan Quarters (a name synonymous with the hometown of the Late Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden) killed over 5 persons and injuring scores of Christian youth during the Easter Monday celebration. “Yet the Police PPRO came up with another narrative that was uncalled for after a very shallow investigation into the incident. “The question is, why this recurring decimal? Ironically while investigation was supposed to be going on, some government security outfits had already announced the conclusion of the investigation and the arrest of some Tangale youth for alleged vandalism at the scene of the suicide attack, insisting that the incidence was only a vehicular accident! This is very sad indeed”, he decried. Questioning government’s actions towards the Tangale people of the State, Amuga said, “When one recalls the unprovoked incident, with the state Government, following the aftermath of the Tangale Chieftaincy crisis in 2021, whereby the Tangale people were denied the choice of Dr. Musa Idris as the Mai (Chief) Tangle, because he is a Christian and further arrested some youth, some of whom have died in prison and others are rendered useless due various illnesses while still in prison, one begins to wonder, which of the law is in use in Gombe State, the Nigerian constitution or the Sharia Law? “Accordingly I have no option than to support and call on the ethnic nationalities, the Christians and Tangale people in particular, that in their own interest, they should comply immediately with the Clarion call made in May 2018 and repeated this April 2025 by our Elder Statesman, Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, that all indigenous ethnic nationalities of the nation should stand up to defend themselves and their God given land, otherwise very soon, there may be no land and communities to call our own”. He then called on all the elected and appointed political representatives who have benefitted in one way or the other from the support and votes of the Tangale people, the Christian population and the indigenous ethnic nationalities of Gombe State, to as a matter of duty required by the Oath of their various offices, prevail over Governor Inuwa Yahaya to put an end to the discrimination, persecution and maltreatment against the Tangale people, the Christians and the indigenous ethnic nationalities of Gombe State. He also called for the release without delay of all prisoners of conscience and politics, related to the Tangale Chieftaincy crisis and the recent Easter Monday Suicide Truck attack, recognize Dr. Musa Idris, as recommended by the Tangale Traditional Council, as the legitimate Choice for the stool of the (MAI) Chief of Tangale, thereby rendering unnecessary the present court case and Institute without delay a “Truth and Reconciliation committee” to fence-up the deeply fractured population down the line along Tribal and religious cleavages. End.

Power outage causes chaos in Spain and Portugal A massive power cut hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, causing widespread chaos and disruption. The outage left millions of people without electricity, while internet and phone networks were also down. Trains were cancelled and evacuated in some regions, and traffic lights stopped working as delays mounted at airports. With shops, homes and restaurants plunged into darkness – and some people stuck in lifts – Spain’s electricity network said by mid-afternoon that restoring power could take several hours. Spain’s political leaders said the cause of the disruption was still unknown but there was no indication of a cyber attack. When did the outage begin? The first reports of an outage began around midday (10:00 GMT) on Monday and its impact quickly escalated. As the scale of the disruption became clear, residents of Madrid were warned to stay put, keep off the roads and not to call emergency services unless “truly urgent”. A Spanish operator said power restoration would take up to 10 hours, while Portugal’s power firm REN said getting back to full power could take up to a week. Queues formed at cash machines as card payments were affected by the outage, and there were reports that some petrol stations are closed. Spanish media reported that some hospitals had implemented emergency plans, including halting routine work, news agencies reported. By early evening and after several hours of blackouts, residents in some parts of the country reported the lights are back on. Power was being restored “in several areas of the north, south and west of the [Iberian] peninsula”, the Spanish grid operator said. The authorities in Spain and Portugal are still trying to work out what caused the power cuts. “There are no indications of any cyberattack” at this point, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said. As panic spread earlier in the day, residents of Madrid were warned to stay off the roads. In a video on social media, the mayor of the Spanish capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, told residents to “keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear.” People should only call emergency services if it is “truly urgent”, he said. “If emergency calls go unanswered, go to the police and the fire stations in person, where they will try to deal with all the emergencies.” What has been the impact? The country’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped when the blackout hit, and the Spanish oil company Moeve said it halted operations at its oil refineries. Flights were also impacted, with delays and cancellations at some airports. EasyJet said it was experiencing some disruption to operations at Lisbon and Madrid. It said the situation was “fluid” and told customers to check local advice. Aviation data company Cirium said 96 flights departing from Portugal – and 45 from Spain – had been cancelled. Businesses have been severely affected. Some Ikea branches in Spain switched to backup generators and stopped customers from entering its stores. The Madrid Open Tennis organisers have decided to cancel Monday’s event. Elsewhere, Andorra and parts of France were also hit, but the Balearic and Canary Islands were not affected.

 

This is not a good time for the country’s health system with the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic ravaging countries all over the world.

The Public Health workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are not motivated to deliver their best, NewsSpecng can authoritatively reveal.

The FCT Administration is owing the Health workers seven (7) months hazard allowance, a situation that has demoralised the workers, it was learnt.

The workers who are in the forefeont of combating Covid-19 have only been paid the N50,000 hazard allowance for three months -March to May 2020.

According to the few of the Health workers who voluntered to speak, though under the condition of anonymity, the administration has been using subtle blackmail to keep them working and quiet.

They said what we hear everytime the issue comes up is that the allowance remains a privilege and not a right.

Besides, the authorities are fast in reminding them of their monthly salaries that is still running.

The workers also complained about the inferior Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplied to them.

The PPE, they chorused “are either fake, substandard and unsafe for the kind of work they expect us to carry out. Yet, no one will listen.”
They explained that atimes at the point of removing the PPE, it get torn, which further exposed them to danger.

Their fear became heightened when the Director of Public Health landed in the isolation centre.

“Despite the kind of treatment we recieve from the authorities, we are still doing our job. But it is incumbent on them to do the needful and not continue to cajole us.

“Everybody knows that we are at the forefront of the exposure as we deal with patients of the virus yet we are denied our allowance on the excuse that there is no money for now.

“At times when we request for our allowance, we would be told that it is a previlege and not a right. So we should not push it too far.”

Apart from the hazard allowance been owed, the workers said the administration is still owing promotion arears since 2016.

“Also imagine the kind of PPE they supplied for the work. They even exposed us the more. The PPEs are either fake or inferior yet we dont have a choice than to use it. Look now, the Director of Public Health has found himself in isolation centre. The nature of his work also exposes him.

“So you can see the nature of work we do. Nobody around us is safe, yet we are not given our dues as at when due. Some of us were even optimistic that the arrears would be paid with our salaries but we were disapoointed. We will now go back to our families that there is nothing to show for the overtime amd risk work we have been doing for the past seven months. Its unfair but what can we do.”

Meanwhile, the FCT administration has reactivated the Idu isolation centre as a result of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, while other centres, Asokoro, Karu are expected to come up as well.

The centres were shut following the reduction of incidences of the virus in September 2020.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Related Posts

Labour Party Chieftain support call by TY Danjuma for communities to arm and defend themselves Danjuma Attah, Gombe A chieftain of the Labour Party and Governorship candidate in the 2024 general elections, Keftin E Amuga, has reiterated to his people in Billiri, the call by General TY Danjuma on communities to stand up and defend themselves against terrorists and land grabbers. Keftin Amuga made the call in a press statement sent to our Correspondent and gave reasons for reiterating TY Danjuma’s call to the continued attack on his people in Billiri LGA of Gombe State Amuga, also the Gombe State Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, while condemning what he described as the barbaric, wicked and inhumane Easter Monday Suicide truck attack on the Christians faithful of Billiri, condoled families of victims of the attack. According to him, “this deliberately planned attack which left five dead and 13 injured is about the third one, two of which were deadly. Essentially the attack was born out of pure hatred and intended to maximize deadly impact on Christian faithful’s of Gombe State”, he stated. Recalling two similar attacks on Christian in the State in the past, the Easter celebrations in 2019 and the Christmas celebrations of 2024 when Christians were attacked by moving vehicles, Amuga said the recent attack during this year’s Easter celebrations indicated a pattern in the attack. He said, “the third and most current one which occurred on the 21st April, 2025 by another fanatic named Usman Muhammad aged 28, a resident of Afghanistan Quarters (a name synonymous with the hometown of the Late Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden) killed over 5 persons and injuring scores of Christian youth during the Easter Monday celebration. “Yet the Police PPRO came up with another narrative that was uncalled for after a very shallow investigation into the incident. “The question is, why this recurring decimal? Ironically while investigation was supposed to be going on, some government security outfits had already announced the conclusion of the investigation and the arrest of some Tangale youth for alleged vandalism at the scene of the suicide attack, insisting that the incidence was only a vehicular accident! This is very sad indeed”, he decried. Questioning government’s actions towards the Tangale people of the State, Amuga said, “When one recalls the unprovoked incident, with the state Government, following the aftermath of the Tangale Chieftaincy crisis in 2021, whereby the Tangale people were denied the choice of Dr. Musa Idris as the Mai (Chief) Tangle, because he is a Christian and further arrested some youth, some of whom have died in prison and others are rendered useless due various illnesses while still in prison, one begins to wonder, which of the law is in use in Gombe State, the Nigerian constitution or the Sharia Law? “Accordingly I have no option than to support and call on the ethnic nationalities, the Christians and Tangale people in particular, that in their own interest, they should comply immediately with the Clarion call made in May 2018 and repeated this April 2025 by our Elder Statesman, Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, that all indigenous ethnic nationalities of the nation should stand up to defend themselves and their God given land, otherwise very soon, there may be no land and communities to call our own”. He then called on all the elected and appointed political representatives who have benefitted in one way or the other from the support and votes of the Tangale people, the Christian population and the indigenous ethnic nationalities of Gombe State, to as a matter of duty required by the Oath of their various offices, prevail over Governor Inuwa Yahaya to put an end to the discrimination, persecution and maltreatment against the Tangale people, the Christians and the indigenous ethnic nationalities of Gombe State. He also called for the release without delay of all prisoners of conscience and politics, related to the Tangale Chieftaincy crisis and the recent Easter Monday Suicide Truck attack, recognize Dr. Musa Idris, as recommended by the Tangale Traditional Council, as the legitimate Choice for the stool of the (MAI) Chief of Tangale, thereby rendering unnecessary the present court case and Institute without delay a “Truth and Reconciliation committee” to fence-up the deeply fractured population down the line along Tribal and religious cleavages. End.

Power outage causes chaos in Spain and Portugal A massive power cut hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, causing widespread chaos and disruption. The outage left millions of people without electricity, while internet and phone networks were also down. Trains were cancelled and evacuated in some regions, and traffic lights stopped working as delays mounted at airports. With shops, homes and restaurants plunged into darkness – and some people stuck in lifts – Spain’s electricity network said by mid-afternoon that restoring power could take several hours. Spain’s political leaders said the cause of the disruption was still unknown but there was no indication of a cyber attack. When did the outage begin? The first reports of an outage began around midday (10:00 GMT) on Monday and its impact quickly escalated. As the scale of the disruption became clear, residents of Madrid were warned to stay put, keep off the roads and not to call emergency services unless “truly urgent”. A Spanish operator said power restoration would take up to 10 hours, while Portugal’s power firm REN said getting back to full power could take up to a week. Queues formed at cash machines as card payments were affected by the outage, and there were reports that some petrol stations are closed. Spanish media reported that some hospitals had implemented emergency plans, including halting routine work, news agencies reported. By early evening and after several hours of blackouts, residents in some parts of the country reported the lights are back on. Power was being restored “in several areas of the north, south and west of the [Iberian] peninsula”, the Spanish grid operator said. The authorities in Spain and Portugal are still trying to work out what caused the power cuts. “There are no indications of any cyberattack” at this point, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said. As panic spread earlier in the day, residents of Madrid were warned to stay off the roads. In a video on social media, the mayor of the Spanish capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, told residents to “keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear.” People should only call emergency services if it is “truly urgent”, he said. “If emergency calls go unanswered, go to the police and the fire stations in person, where they will try to deal with all the emergencies.” What has been the impact? The country’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped when the blackout hit, and the Spanish oil company Moeve said it halted operations at its oil refineries. Flights were also impacted, with delays and cancellations at some airports. EasyJet said it was experiencing some disruption to operations at Lisbon and Madrid. It said the situation was “fluid” and told customers to check local advice. Aviation data company Cirium said 96 flights departing from Portugal – and 45 from Spain – had been cancelled. Businesses have been severely affected. Some Ikea branches in Spain switched to backup generators and stopped customers from entering its stores. The Madrid Open Tennis organisers have decided to cancel Monday’s event. Elsewhere, Andorra and parts of France were also hit, but the Balearic and Canary Islands were not affected.

Thanks for subscribing to our newsletter