Ganta Ebola Taskforce demands benefits

Members of the Ganta Ebola taskforce in Nimba County are demanding allowance and benefits from Government. The aggrieved taskforce members in Ganta claim the Government has given other Ebola affected counties some money, so they need their share.

Most of the staff members at the Ganta Ebola taskforce are non-medical personnel assigned in the Ebola Treatment Unit or ETU.

The Ganta ETU attracted hundreds of jobseekers, mainly motorcyclists, school teachers and farmers, among others during the peak of the outbreak last year.

During the heat of the Ebola outbreak, Ganta was one of those areas in the county that were highly affected with residents migrating from the commercial city into the bushes.

The NewDawn Nimba correspondent, who visited the Ganta Ebola Treatment Unit, was informed by some of the inmates in the ETU that they don’t have the virus, but were brought into the center to be there in order to get continuous support from Government.

Some of aggrieved taskforce members said schools were in session, but they don’t have money to pay their children’s fees.

The over 100 taskforce members are demanding from Government US$25,000.00. However, others told this paper they would take any amount government was willing to pay.

This paper did not however establish whether the aggrieved Ebola taskforce members had a written contract with the Government, stipulating how much they would have been paid, but the issue of benefits continues to remain a contentious topic between healthcare workers in Monrovia and the Government.

When contacted, the head for the Ganta Ebola Taskforce declined to comment on the aggrieved taskforce members’ claim on grounds that a meeting was being planned with the taskforce members to discuss their concerns.
 
At the same time some aggrieved residents of Ganta appeared on Radio Kergheamehn recently and called on the former mayor of Ganta, Door Cooper, who is currently Development Superintendent of Nimba, to return the vehicle he is using to the newly inducted City Mayor, Benjamin  Dorkpa.

By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba