President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Emeka Orji has countered claim of the medical body being invited to a meeting by the federal government meeting to resolve the ongoing warning strike.
The scheduled five-day warning strike began today, May 17 and is expected to last till Monday, May 22. Recall also that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige had on Tuesday in Abuja advised NARD to attend the meeting with the Minister of Health scheduled to hold on Wednesday.
The NARD President who spoke in an interview with the media, said;
“We are ready to attend any meetings that help us to resolve this issue because like I said before the strike is avoidable and it can still be stopped even though it is a warning strike but we have to see a genuine commitment.
“We have not received any communication from any ministry inviting us to a meetings whether today (Wednesday) or any other day.”
“I believe that there is no law that says that a warning strike is illegal. If they say a warning strike is illegal, let them prove it to us. We want to see the part of the law that says that a warning strike is illegal,” he said.
Orji indicated that the association had satisfied all the provisions before embarking on a strike, adding that the National Executive Council (NEC) has given the association the mandate to proceed on a warning strike.