Medical doctors and health workers at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) in Akwa Ibom State have gone on an indefinite strike following a dramatic and violent raid by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday.
The incident has sent shockwaves across the Nigerian medical community, raising serious concerns about due process and the safety of healthcare professionals in their own workplace.
According to eyewitnesses, EFCC operatives arrived at the hospital premises on Tuesday afternoon to arrest a staff member. The situation quickly turned chaotic when other hospital workers gathered to resist the arrest.
The operatives reportedly called for reinforcement, and when additional personnel arrived, shots were fired into the air to disperse the crowd. Tear gas was also allegedly deployed on hospital grounds.
By the time the dust settled, the Deputy Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee, Prof. Effiong Ekpe, along with three other staff members, had been taken away by the EFCC operatives. Several people were reportedly injured in the process, and phones were destroyed as staff tried to record what was happening.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Akwa Ibom State, Dr Aniekan Peters, wasted no time. He directed doctors across the state to shut down services immediately. Leaders of the Joint Health Sector Unions also announced a full hospital shutdown in protest.
The NMA’s public relations officer, Dr Gabriel Eyo, confirmed the incident and called the EFCC’s action an outright assault on the hospital and its workers.
In his words:
“In the early hours of this morning, masked men wearing EFCC jackets stormed into the hospital premises, walked into the Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee’s (CMAC) office, Prof. Effiong Ekpe, and they beat him to a pulp.”
“They dragged him like a common criminal. When members of staff, students and other health workers walked into the hospital tried to resist them, and they shot sporadically into the air at the hospital premises and dispersed the crowd with tear gas.”
“Even when they reached the hospital gates, when the hospital security saw what was happening, they locked the gates. The members of the EFCC knocked down the gates.”
Dr Eyo pointed out that Prof. Ekpe is the only professor of cardiothoracic surgery in Akwa Ibom State, making his treatment even more alarming.
“Prof. Ekpe is the professor of cardiothoracic surgery, the only one we have in Akwa Ibom State. Anyway, we don’t know what he has done, but we don’t really care at this point. Whatever he did, there’s a due process for this kind of thing. Even criminals are not treated this way. The only thing that should have been done would have been to send an invite, which was not done.”
He expressed concern about the physical and psychological toll on the professor, who was reportedly about to perform surgery at the time of the arrest.
“I heard that he was about to operate on a patient, and then you whisk him away in such manner? Very demoralizing, very traumatic. That man, I heard, was even bleeding from his head. That man may have been exposed to severe traumatic brain injury. Imagine the psychosocial trauma that he may never recover from.”
Following an emergency NMA meeting, the association declared an indefinite strike, with further resolutions to be made public.
The Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Baba Azare, offered a different account of events. He said the EFCC went to the hospital on the orders of a judge in an ongoing court case, and that he personally sent officers to verify and support the operation.
According to Azare:
“The EFCC went for an arrest in the hospital this morning, and the CMD called me to verify if my men were among those in the hospital.”
“I called the head of EFCC who confirmed to me that they were actually the ones that went to pick that person. On the instruction of the court, that right now they are in court and they are having a court case and the judge stood down the case that they should bring that person. That is why they went to bring him.”
He insisted that the police went to the hospital purely to verify the identity of those carrying out the arrest, not to invade it. He also said he called the Chief Medical Director, Prof. Emem Bassey, and advised him to grant access to the EFCC team.
“So we didn’t go to invade anywhere. We went there on the invitation of the CMD to check, to verify those who came to do the arrest, whether they are legitimate or not. And we confirmed to him they are legitimate and he should allow them to move.”
The shutdown of services at UUTH and hospitals across Akwa Ibom State means patients currently receiving care, or those who had appointments, may be affected until the strike is called off.
This is a developing story. The Students Forum Nigeria will continue to monitor and provide updates as more information becomes available.
Digital Operations Manager at The Students Forum Nigeria.
