There is tension at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos, as some staff have challenged the process of appointing the Acting Chief Medical Director, Professor Wasiu Lanre Adeyemo, as the substantive Chief Executive Officer.
Acting under the aegis of Concerned Staff of LUTH, the staff have, through their lawyer of the The Advocate Law Firm, hinged their protest on the appointment process which they claimed was fraught with irregularities.
The letter of appointment said to be made based on the faulted process and signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, it was gathered, is to be dispatched today.
The said letter, which has been widely circulated, was dated May 8, 2023, weeks to the expiration of the Buhari administration, but could not be acted upon more than one week after the former president handed over to the new helmsman, President Bola Tinubu.
A copy of the said letter of appointment was issued and signed by the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, and backdated to take effect from March 24, 2023, for an initial four-year term.
In the petition to the Federal Ministry of Health, for the protesting staff, the law firm, whose Principal Partner is Daniel Gbolade Odubitan, accused the former Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, of masterminding the plot to impose Prof Adeyemo at all cost as the substantive CMD of the hospital.
The concerned staff are insisting that the health ministry should put on hold the planned dispatch of the appointment letter since the outcome of the selection interview process was not released before the Buhari administration wound up.
Their argument is that the new administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should halt the process so that the irregularities complained about officially since April this year be looked into.
To them, part of the irregularities included alleged unfair over-scoring of the marks allotted to a particular candidate in order to impose him as CMD at all cost.
The Ag. CMD took over in March this year from the former helmsman, Prof. Chris Bode, who had served from 2017 to 2023, the same period when Prof Adeyemo served under him as Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC)
