The Ministry of Health has been directed to advertise vacancies for the immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace those dismissed.
Amid the ongoing strike in Kaduna State, Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai has ordered the mass sack of nurses.
The governor on Tuesday announced the dismissal of all nurses below level 14 in the state.
The governor's action is linked to a tweet he made earlier when he stated that Barau Dikko Teaching hospital had reported that nurses disconnected oxygen from a two-day-old baby in an incubator on Monday, May 17, 2021, when they joined the NLC strike.
However, a statement issued by Governor El-Rufai's Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye, said, "apart from referring the nurses involved to the Ministry of Justice to initiate prosecution, the government also announced the dismissal of all nurses below Grade Level 14 for the illegal strike.
"The Ministry of Health has been directed to advertise vacancies for the immediate recruitment of new nurses to replace those dismissed," the statement read.
"The government has directed all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies to submit their attendance registers to the Head of Service while Kaduna State University should submit the same to the Secretary to the State Government and the Commissioner of Education."
Adekeye noted that salaries that could have been paid to the dismissed nurses would be given as extraordinary occupational allowances to the health workers who are at their duty posts to fill the gaps of those absconding from duty.
Many Nigerians have criticised the government over the decision.
"We strongly condemn this reported sack of nurses by Gov. @elrufai. While we support the prosecution of any health worker who disconnected oxygen from a patient to join the strike, we warn that sacking all striking nurses will only make Kaduna hospitals not to work for a long time," a group, MakeOurHospitalWork wrote on Twitter.