Protesters for and against the sack of some Lagos state doctors on Tuesday stormed the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos.
While they were demonstrating outside the court gates, the 788 sacked doctors were asking Justice Benedict Kanyip to void the dismissal letters issued to them.
The suit was instituted by both the Chairman of the Medical Guild, Olumuyiwa Odusote and the General Secretary, Idris Durojaiye, for themselves and on behalf of other members of the Guild.
Joined as defendants in the suit, were the Lagos State Government, the Lagos state Commissioner for Health, the Lagos State Health Service Commission and the State University Teaching Hospital Management Board.
In an application filed by their counsel, Bamidele Aturu, the doctors are equally seeking for “an order of injunction restraining the defendants from ejecting or continuing with the ejection from staff quarters of members of the medical guild and doctors who took part in the 3-day warning strike declared by the medical guild between the 11th and the 13th of April, 2012, as a result of the failure of the defendants to fully implement the agreement reached by the medical guild and the defendants”.
According to the doctors, the decision of the defendants on the issue is in violent violation and sabotage of the rule of law and utter disrespect for the dignity of the court.
The application could however not be argued by the applicants’ lawyer, Mr Aturu, as the state government is yet to file its counter-affidavit.
The Attorney-General of Lagos State, Ade Ipaye, told the court that he got the application on Tuesday. He however said that the government will be opposing the motion.
Responding to the issue raised by Mr Aturu concerning the forceful eviction of the sacked doctors by the Lagos State Government, Mr Ipaye said he is ready to give an undertaking that no one will be ejected until the matter is disposed of.
Justice Kanyip while adjourning the matter to the 22nd of May, for the hearing of the application further urged parties to seek for an amicable resolution of the matter in line with the provision of Section 20 of the National Industrial Court Act, 2006.
He declared that the court will accept the undertaking by the Attorney General as to the eviction of the doctors & grant an accelerated hearing of the matter.
