Resident doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital have commenced a three-day warning strike.

The strike is sequel to alleged arbitrary deductions in their salaries and indiscriminate sack of resident doctors by the management, led by Professor Edmund Banwat.

The strike by the doctors has worsened situation at the health institution as members of Joint Health Workers Sector Union JOHESU, who had earlier embarked on similar strike over issues related to their welfare about six weeks ago were yet to return to work.

The doctors under the auspices of Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, marched through the streets carrying placards with different inscriptions such as: “stop arbitrary tax deduction from our members”, “upgrade our DTA”, “pay our training allowances”, “Governor Lalong come to our aid”, and many more.

They later converged at the hospital gate where their President, Dr Cephas Ibrahim told journalists that his members in the health institution were facing injustice and inhuman treatment from the Management, adding that their efforts to address the issues had been met with frustration.

“My doctors would just wake up and discover that their salaries were massively deducted without prior notice. Several of our members have also been sacked for no justifiable reason.

“Besides, our training allowances were being withheld for two years despite the fact that we have been working. We cannot continue like this.

“When we met with the Management, they told us that it was tax. we are not avast to paying tax, but the way it is done suggests something sinister. If not, why is it that this tax is done arbitrarily, such that a lower person has higher pay tax even more than his senior? Why are people on the same level getting different rate of tax? This is not tax. We know tax is a system. We are law abiding citizens, we have been paying our tax, all we are saying is that the Management should give this tax a universal applicability and human face”.

However, when contacted, the Chief Medical Director of JUTH, Professor Edmund Banwat denied any involvement in the tax controversy, stating that the grievances of the doctors should not be directed to the Management but rather to the Board of Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for taxation.

Banwat said the Institution only applied the computation given by the Plateau State Board of Internal Revenue Service to arrive at the deductions from the doctors’ salaries.

He also denied sacking any doctor and insisted that only those who had overstayed the mandatory 6 years period for their programme had to be relieved to enable others benefit.

count | 9

JUTH resident doctors embark on 3-day warning strike over salary deductions