FMC Oweri Workers Demand Director’s Sack Over N242m Scam

Workers at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, have called for the sack of the medical director, Dr. Angela Uwakwem, over her an allegation of N242 million scam and her preference for the Public Private Partnership initiative, which they described as a ploy to defraud the hospital.


The face-off between workers and the management of the hospital, which has crippled activities at the hospital for the past two months, took a new twist as the workers are demanding a comprehensive probe into the records and activities of the hospital under Uwekwem.
The workers want government to probe the medical director through the board of the hospital to carry out, among others, the revocation of the contract already outsourced through the PPP; withdrawal of queries to leaders of the unions and meeting other demands, stating that the unions, led by the National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) had already unearthed some questionable deals that called the integrity and credibility of the FMC management to question.

The union had, in May, petitioned the hospital’s board through the Finance and General Purposes Investigation Committee of the board, alleging gross financial misconduct and highhandedness by Uwakwem. The workers were calling for the immediate removal of the director over an allegation of spending the sum of N242 million under the guise of conversion from personnel cost to capital cost.

In the petition signed by the Chairman of the National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Mr. Ezeugwu Clifford and Secretary General, Nwafuru S.K, the unions alleged that the conversion of personnel fund was a flagrant violation of the civil service financial regulations. The once busy hospital is now deserted, as the workers continue to embark on their workto- rule action, until the medical director was removed.