CMD Counters EFCC Narrative<\/strong><\/p>\nBut the Chief Medical Director of UUTH,\u00a0Professor Ememabasi Bassey, painted a dramatically different picture during an emotional press conference in Uyo during the week.<\/p>\n
According to Bassey, EFCC operatives stormed the hospital without prior notice, headed straight to the office of renowned cardiothoracic surgeon\u00a0Professor Eyo Ekpe, and attempted to arrest him over the authentication of a medical report linked to a fraud suspect.<\/p>\n
The CMD alleged the operatives neither presented an arrest warrant nor informed hospital management before entering the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, before you arrest somebody, there should be a warrant,\u201d Bassey declared. \u201cIt is me \u2014 the CEO \u2014 who should be picked up for non-compliance, not an individual carrying out an assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a twist that deepened the controversy, Bassey disclosed that the disputed medical report under EFCC investigation had already been identified as fake.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe letterhead used was an old one. It did not come from any official quarters of this hospital,\u201d he said, warning that insiders within the hospital might have collaborated with outsiders in producing forged medical reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Hospital Is Sacred Ground\u201d<\/p>\n
The confrontation escalated after armed, hooded operatives allegedly returned to Ekpe\u2019s office despite being shown a draft authentication report indicating the document was forged.<\/p>\n
Hospital staff reportedly panicked, believing the armed men could be kidnappers or impostors.<\/p>\n
Bassey said he immediately contacted\u00a0Baba Azare, who initially expressed uncertainty over the identities of the armed men and dispatched police officers to the scene.<\/p>\n
On police advice, hospital gates were temporarily shut.<\/p>\n
By the time authorities confirmed the operatives were indeed EFCC personnel, tear gas had already been deployed and chaos had erupted across the hospital grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hospital is a hallowed ground,\u201d Bassey lamented. \u201cThe only place you can compare a hospital to is a place of worship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witnesses claimed several workers sustained injuries during the melee, including one staff member who reportedly suffered a head wound.<\/p>\n
Patients Stranded as Doctors Down Tools<\/p>\n
The fallout has been severe.<\/p>\n
Medical services at the tertiary facility \u2014 which sees between 600 and 800 patients daily \u2014 have been crippled following an indefinite strike by doctors under the\u00a0Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria\u00a0and the\u00a0Association of Resident Doctors.<\/p>\n
In a joint communiqu\u00e9, the associations condemned the conduct of the operatives and demanded:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Disciplinary action against those involved<\/p>\n
\u2022 Compensation and treatment for affected staff<\/p>\n
\u2022 A public apology from the EFCC in two national newspapers<\/p>\n
\u2022 Repairs of damaged hospital property<\/p>\n
Until those conditions are met, the strike will continue.<\/p>\n
For patients arriving at the gates of UUTH on Friday, the crisis had become more than a clash between institutions \u2014 it had become a healthcare emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place serves millions,\u201d Bassey warned. \u201cNow today, hundreds of patients are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions Still Hanging<\/p>\n
Even as both sides seek to calm tensions, major questions remain unanswered:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Why did the EFCC allegedly proceed without direct engagement with hospital management?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Who forged the medical report at the centre of the investigation?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Was force necessary in what the EFCC itself described as an \u201cadministrative\u201d assignment?<\/p>\n
\u2022 And can trust between security agencies and medical institutions survive the fallout?<\/p>\n
For now, the corridors of UUTH remain unusually quiet – except for the echo of a controversy that has shaken public confidence and ignited a national debate over power, procedure and respect for critical public institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has issued another clarification over the dramatic confrontation at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, insisting its operatives were on a \u201cpurely administrative\u201d mission and not a raid operation as widely portrayed. In a statement released Friday by EFCC Head of Media and Publicity,\u00a0Dele Oyewale, the anti-graft agency denied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8346,164,8347,8345],"class_list":["post-98951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bassey","tag-efcc","tag-ekpe","tag-uniuyi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98959,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98951\/revisions\/98959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}