There is confusion over the reported removal of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Emem Abraham and Dr. Anietie Utuk.
While the Chairman dismissed his removal, an aide of the State Governor was accused of being behind the plot.
However, the acting Chairman of the NMA, Dr. Useneobong Morgan, dismissed external influence in the impeachment of Abraham and Utuk.
Morgan said it is untrue that Dr. Ekem John, the Personal Physician to the state Governor, Umo Eno, was behind the crisis rocking the NMA, adding that it was purely an internal matter.
According to him the duo was impeached for lack of accountability and due process in the running of the Association.
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He said: “They were impeached on the grounds of running the NMA Akwa Ibom State for five months without a budget, while expending millions of naira and presenting to State Executive Council a financial statement for free medical outreach accounting for only N6 million out of N34 million.”
According to Dr. Morgan, other grounds for their impeachment included: Breaching the NMA National Constitution and Akwa Ibom State Bye-laws, unconstitutionally ejecting members from the association’s WhatsApp group and anomalies in committee reports.
He further said that they were removed for presenting a financial statement for NMA creche without showing income, high-handedness, impersonating the Secretary in official communication, and illegally suspending the President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Chairman of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, and NMA Secretary.
Similarly, Dr. Morgan, who called for the immediate withdrawal of the privileges and recognitions that accrue to the Chairman and Vice Chairman, said the briefing was timely to intimate the public of the changes in the association’s leadership.
He said: “As the Secretary of the NMA, I was made to be the Acting Chairman of the Association by virtue of the hierarchy of the Chairman and Vice being impeached and that is why I’m here to notify that the change has occurred and our request is that following the resolution of the congress, everyone should cease and withdraw all forms of recognition and privileges accrued to the suspended persons going forward because the congress has made an acting chairman, which is my own self.”
Reacting, Dr. Abraham insisted that she is still the chairman of the NMA in the state.
The Public Relations Officer of the Association, Dr. Unyime Ndoh, who spoke on behalf of the embattled chairman, described the purported impeachment as “illegal”.
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