Witnesses who testified before the Anambra Truth, Justice, and Peace Commission (ATJPC) on Friday criticized the harmful impact of insecurity in Anambra, claiming that it is impacting service delivery in the health sector and justice administration.
The Commission, which opened hearings on Thursday, is seeking public testimony in order to determine the origins of violence, identify victims of violence, and develop long-term solutions to the problems.
According to Edith Onwuka, Chairman of the Nurses and Midwives Association, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, one of their members, Uche Ikemma, has been missing since December 2021 and has yet to be discovered.
Onwuka stated that security concerns had caused them to reconsider their operations procedures, such that they no longer wore their uniforms in public, but exclusively during work.
She said they had also adjusted their schedule to allow only those living around the hospital areas to work on Mondays in order to address the challenges of sit-at-home.
According to her, “We no longer wear our uniforms outside because of fear of attack, Monday sit-at-home is affecting our services in some areas because of restriction of movement and absence of ambulance services.
“We are losing our members to other states and foreign countries,” she said.
Onwuka said Anambra was the second state with the highest concentration of nursing colleges, producing an average of 1,000 nurses annually.
She said about 138 nurses were employed by the state government in 2022 but only about 80 of them were still in service as others had left the job because of insecurity or poor remuneration.
The chairman also blamed the unequal treatment of workers in the health sector for the shortage of nurses, noting that while the government was implementing the salary scale of doctors at 100 per cent, it implemented the nurses scale at 60 per cent.
On her part, Mrs Tessy Obuekwe, a representative of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, said Mondays were lost days in the justice delivery system.
Obuekwe said custody cases could not be treated on Mondays because there was no means of taking them to court as it was a condition that they should be present.
Dr Frank Ifeneme, Secretary of the Nigeria Medical Association in Anambra, in his testimony, reported the murder of two of their members in the last two years.
Ifeneme registered the protest of doctors and pleaded that the government should deal with insecurity in the state as a matter of urgency to enable them to operate optimally.
Earlier, the Commission paid an unscheduled inspection visit to a disused facility of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) Annex facility in Neni, Anaocha Local Government Area.
The ATJPC team was led by Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, its chairman, in the company of medical experts and a section of the media.
Odinkalu said the visit became necessary following the number of complaints about human rights abuses linked to the facility by witnesses. the team inspected the inside and surroundings of the facility, part of which has been converted to farmland.
