The National Industrial Court has ordered resident doctors to suspend their strike action and go back to work immediately, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
All parties have also been asked to return to the negotiating table.
Both parties had told the vacation judge, Justice Bashar Alkali, at the industrial court, on September 15, that they were set to negotiate and give the court an update by Friday.
At the hearing, counsel to the Federal Government, Mr. Tochukwu Maduka, told the court that the resident doctors were not disputing any issue in the Memorandum of Understanding, but their concern was the relapse of the timeline.
He added that they brought an entirely different settlement that wasn’t in the original document and walked out of the meeting with the Labour Minister.
Furthermore, the counsel stressed that there have been interventions from the President, Vice President and the National Assembly, but NARD has refused to shift grounds.
In his defense, however, counsel to the resident doctors, Mr. Femi Aborishade, told the court that the Minister of Labour, invited NARD to a meeting with his aides who brought additional documents of settlement, proposing a term of settlement.
He insisted that they never walked out of the meeting and urged the court to order the Federal Government to go into negotiations and reconcile on issues within the additional document.
More to follow…
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