By Pius Awunah
Security guards attached to several government hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja,on Thursday morning,staged protests over the non-payment of their wages for four months.
This is our paper exclusively reported that doctors at the Asokoro District Hospital, Abuja, had embarked on strike forcing patients to desert the hospital.
The demonstrations which broke out simultaneously on Thursday, November 13,2025,at Nyanya, Zuba, and Kubwa General Hospitals saw the aggrieved guards barricading the entrances, singing protest songs and vowing not to resume duty until they received their outstanding payments.
The action brought hospital operations to a standstill, leaving patients, including pregnant women and nursing mothers with early appointments, stranded.
The emergency and outpatient services were suspended, worsening the situation for many who had traveled long distances for medical care.
The protesting guards accused their employers — private security companies contracted by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), of withholding their wages despite the harsh economic conditions.
However, one managing director of a security firm, who requested anonymity, shifted the blame to the government, claiming the FCTA had failed to pay contractors for almost a year.
“Our hands are tied. The Health Department has refused to release our payments for nearly twelve months. How can we pay our workers when we ourselves haven’t been paid?” he explained.
The protests highlight deep-seated issues of administrative neglect and financial mismanagement within the FCTA, as critical health institutions continue to suffer from delayed funding and bureaucratic inefficiencies.
The development exposes the fragile state of the capital’s healthcare system, where essential services are being disrupted not by medical professionals, but by unpaid security personnel who can no longer afford to keep working without pay.
Earlier, we reported that
patients had deserted the ever busy and crowded Asokoro District Hospital, Abuja, as a result of the ongoing strike by resident doctors.
Our reporter who visited the hospital on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, saw a few Out- Patients milling around to collect the results of their laboratory investigations conducted for them before the strike but there was no doctor on ground to attend to them.
