The Ministry of Health failed to adequately organize and execute the volunteers operations. Individuals were shortchanged with salaries, with food, and with accommodation. They also faced sexual harassment and deportation, according to sources speaking to the Premium Times.
The Nigerian civil rights organization, Access to Justice, has called on the African Union as well as the Nigerian Government to look into the many concerning allegations about the maltreatment of Nigerian Ebola mission volunteers.
The volunteers have accused the Nigerian Government and African Union of stealing from them and depleting the little resources they had while trying to fight the Ebola epidemic.
Some of the volunteers were locked in an Abuja hotel room after heated talks with Nigerian Health Ministry Officials.
Oladimeji Adepoju, a medical doctor volunteer, said, "I have now confirmed that serving or representing Nigeria is a waste time as the country treats those who have done her proud shabbily."
The Ministry of Health failed to adequately organize and execute the volunteers operations. Individuals were shortchanged with salaries, with food, and with accommodation. They also faced sexual harassment and deportation, according to sources speaking to the Premium Times.
A statement released Thursday by Joseph Otteh, the Director of Access to Justice, said, "to treat volunteers in the way reported by the media is unfortunate and scandalous. The volunteers deserve our gratitude, respect, acclaim, and not denigration. Nigeria and indeed, Africa, owes them that much!"
"Those who have diminished the value and worth of what they have offered the country and continent have no business being where they are or managing the positions they hold, and no business managing interventions of this nature as a whole."
The "allegations of corruption must be investigated by the Buhari Administration in order to establish whether public health officials could have so seriously endangered the lives of Nigerians in the manner alleged."