Police have urged over 150 unemployed diploma nurses who picketed the Ministry of Health (MoH) demanding their immediate posting to leave the premises of the Ministry and avoid sleeping there as they have threatened to do, given they refused to notify the service of their intent to picket the place.

The group on Monday 24 April said since members completed their national service in August 2016, they had remained jobless. It described government’s inability to employ the nurses as “inhuman and heartless”.

The coalition said it had written several petitions to the MoH on the matter, but all had proved futile. They threatened to sleep at the Ministry until they are posted to begin work in the various health facilities across the country.

But the district police commander of the Ministries Police, DSP Florence Owusu, speaking to Class News, said the disgruntled nurses failed to notify the police and advised them to leave the premises after meeting with some officials of the Health Ministry.

She noted that the nurses were nonviolent and would, therefore, use diplomatic means to ask them to return to their homes.

She said: “In the morning we had information that some nurses had gathered at the MoH, so we went there to find out why they were there. We had an interaction with them…together with the human resource personnel and the director at the Ministry and they said they cannot promise them because they have not received clearance from the Ministry of Finance to post them. So they asked them to go… Although they did not notify us, we think it is proper for us to exercise that restraint. We are protecting them and protecting the management as well, so we are just here to ensure law and order.”

Asked what action the police would take if they refused to leave the premises, DSP Owusu said: “They are not violent so we will not exercise maximum force. We will engage them in a nice way for them to leave.”