Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A group, Edo North League (ENL), has revolted against what it tagged ethnic colouration in the shortlisting of candidates for the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo State.
The president of the group, Dr Desmond Iyokpa through a press statement made available to newsmen in Benin, said the recent comment made by a group known as Esan Descendants Assembly (EDA) where it raises question about the high performances of Dr. Mojeed Momoh from Edo North who came top among others who participated in an examination for the position of the CMD in the hospital, was uncalled for.
He said the best candidate has emerged through a competitive, rigorous examination and interview adding that the process should be respected and that no ethnic group has a monopoly of wisdom and competence.
“Thank God they are not challenging the qualifications and administrative skills of the person in question who has the acumen to further turn around the teaching hospital for better.
“Citing the hospital in Esanland is not a license that all CMD must be an indigene”, Iyokpa said.
However, a non-governmental organization under the umbrella of Esan Descendants Assembly (EDA) has earlier kicked against the outcome of the interview and the subsequent shortlisting of candidates for the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital Edo State which propped up Edo North person as the most qualified candidate.
The organization which prides itself as a non-partisan organization aimed to protect and project the Esan interest in all spheres, is made up of prominent Esan sons and daughters.
The statement was signed by Prof Oyaziwo Aluede and Ayo Binite as president and secretary respectively.
It was also reported that the supervisory body of the hospital, the Federal Ministry of Health, had set in motion the process of appointing a Chief Medical Director for the teaching hospital following the expiration of the tenure of Professor Sylvanus Okogbenin as the institution’s CMD.
A nine-member interview panel was constituted by the supervising ministry to screen and conduct tests among the five shortlisted candidates to determine the most suitable candidate for the position.
All five candidates contesting the exalted position are staff of the hospital. Four of them, including the Acting Chief Medical Director, Prof. Reuben Eifediyi, hail from Esan while Dr. Mojeed Momoh was the sole contestant from Edo north extraction.
The immediate past CMD of the hospital, Prof. Sylvanus Okogbenin, was also of the Esan extraction.
The nine-member panel which include two resource persons, were said to have scored Dr. Momoh above the others contestants.