Posted on: Mon 04-05-2020

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, has written to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital to demand an official report on an incident involving a nurse and a police corporal. A nurse attached to the labour unit of the hospital was allegedly assaulted by Corporal Isaiah Ighodaro for supposedly professional misconduct and bias in handling his wife’s medical condition.

The CP’s letter was sent amidst demand by the health workers for an apology from the police over the harassment and intimidation of medical personnel in the state. In the letter, which was addressed to the Chief Medical Director of the UUTH, Emem Bassey, the CP said though he had been briefed by the corporal, who alleged that his deceased wife was abandoned by nurses on learning that she was a policeman’s wife, he needed a detailed report from the hospital management.

“I still request that my office be furnished with a detailed report to enable me get firsthand account of what actually transpired to prevent a repeat since the professional conduct of some nurses in your hospital has been called to question,” Edgal stated in the letter.

However, a coalition of health workers comprising members of the Nigeria Medical Association, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives and the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in the state have condemned the assault on the victim and others, and called on the police to apologise to all relevant bodies.

A statement by the Chairman of the NMA in the state, Dr Nsikak Nyoyoko; and the Chairman, NANNM, Patrick Odu, said, “During the lockdown, there had been cases of harassment and assault on health workers on essential duties by men of the Nigeria Police Force

“A medical doctor suffered a fracture as a result of an assault by a police officer. Others health workers have been variously harassed, assaulted and denied passage to their places of essential duty.

“The recent one was the assault on a nurse by men of the Nigeria Police Force at the UUTH for no justifiable reason. “She was beaten to a pulp, dragged from the first floor to the ground floor and her uniform (symbol of office and service) torn and her pride as a woman violated.

“Hence, we demand an apology from the NPF to her and other health professionals in the state for these assaults and harassment and to compensate her adequately for the unwarranted attack despite the fact that she provided care to the best of her professional ability to a patient, who was brought in unconscious.”

Source: Punch

---

---