The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition has expressed concern over how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was misled in the removal of Dr.Monday Igwe as Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Enugu by the authorities of the Federal ministry of health and the hospital’s management, and therefore directed his immediate reinstatement.
The committee headed by Honorable Mike Etaba issued the directive in its ruling on a petition brought before the House by Prof. Igwe against the Federal Ministry of Health and the management of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, challenging his removal as the Medical Director of the institution.
The committee after hearing from all parties involved, concluded that President Bola Tinubu was misled to replace Igwe as the Medical Director.
In his ruling, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Etaba, stated: “We have listened to this matter. We don’t need to call the Honourable Minister of Health for State. Mr. President has been misled for him to replace this man (Igwe). And the House’s position is that this man be reinstated back to his duties, and that will be our recommendation to the floor.”
In his petition to the House,Dr. Igwe contended that his suspension and subsequent termination of his appointment did not follow laid-down procedures. He highlighted that he was not issued any written warnings before query and was suspended without fair hearing. Similarly, he added that he was still exonerated by the 7-man ministerial investigative committee which recommended his re-instatement. Instead, his appointment was terminated contrary to the recommendation of the investigative committee.
Igwe prayed the parliament to declare his suspension and termination illegal and direct the government to reinstate him.
But in response to Dr Igwe’s submission, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Daju Kachollom, stated that Igwe’s suspension and subsequent termination were in accordance with extant rules. She explained that Igwe was suspended based on a petition from the institution. According to her, after his initial three-month suspension elapsed, it was further extended for another three months before his eventual termination. During the public hearing session, one of the lawmakers, Hon. Okey-Joe Onuakalusi, pointed that the report of the Investigative Committee set up by the permanent Secretary which was attached to the petition found no serious infraction against Mr. Igwe and asked: “PS, are you bound to follow the recommendations of the Investigative Committee you set up or to simply discard the Committee’s recommendations, and take any action you want”
The lawmakers observed that Igwe’s appointment was terminated after he was issued only one query without any of the three prior written warnings as required by the Public Service Rules and later suspended and that the Ministry of Health disregarded the recommendations of its 7-man investigative panel, which found no serious infraction against Igwe and recommended his reinstatement.
They (the public petition committee) insisted that Kachollom should furnish the parliament with the specific rules the Ministry of Health relied on in terminating Igwe’s appointment.
Similarly, another lawmaker, Fred Agedi, intervened, stating: “Chairman, tell PS to refer us to the rules. We are talking of rules. Nobody can talk on his own when it comes to running government. Take us to the rules that say for whatever offense, three months suspension. Tell us the rules that you also have the power after the three months to also extend the suspension for another three months. Refer us to the rules.”
Kachollom responded: “As I sit here, Honourable Chairman, with deep respect to the House, everything that I did is based on the procedure. I might not have the commission’s guideline here, but what we did is based on disciplinary procedure.”