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THE Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta was Tuesday evening was thrown into pandemonium as operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the hospital to arrest a medical doctor, Dr. Leke Akinremi who was on duty.
The arrest has however resulted in an immediate strike action by the Resident Doctors in the hospital who described it as barbaric.
Akinremi’s arrest was said to have been in connection with a N30 million petroleum deal he had with some unidentified individuals who petitioned the EFCC alleging that they were duped.
The EFCC operatives who were heavily armed stormed the hospital and whisked away the doctor who allegedly did not heed an earlier invitation by the Commission.
The Chairman of the Association of Resident Doctors in the Hospital, Dr. Dominic Olaogun, in an interview described the action of the EFCC officials as “barbaric” and “unfortunate”, saying it is wrong for the Commission to have effected the arrest as the matter was before a court of law.
Olaogun said the strike action became necessary for the association to express their grievance over the unpleasant development.
But the EFCC in a statement by its spokesman, Femi Babafemi said, “a team of EFCC operatives had gone to the FMC, Abeokuta to effect the arrest of one Dr. Leke Akinremi over his alleged involvement in a N30 million fraud and issuance of dud cheque.
“Upon arrival at the hospital, the operatives accompanied by uniform mobile policemen approached the chief medical officer of the hospital to identify themselves and inform him of their mission. They thereafter proceeded to effect the arrest of Dr. Akinremi who rather than follow the operatives resisted arrest and mobilized a crowd to lynch the operatives under the pretence that they were fake EFCC officials.
“At that point of serious threat to their lives, the policemen in the team had to fire some bullets into the air to pave their way out of danger while they escaped with the suspect.”
Vice Chairman of the Resident Doctors Association, Dr. Sola Adebisi in an interview said the Association had begun an indefinite strike to protest the uncivilized arrest.
“We have just concluded an emergency meeting of our Association during which we decided that we should begin an indefinite strike to protest the EFCC’s uncivilized arrest.
“It is a painful decision, but we have to take this drastic action. The EFCC should not be seen as obstructing us from discharging our duties. We are not saying EFCC should not carry out its duties; it should be done in a civilized way. We are all talking of rule of law, what happened yesterday [Tuesday] was pure gangsterism.
“This is a drastic situation and something drastic has to be done. Should we wait until someone comes into the ward to kill or rob someone here? What if somebody was shot or stabled? What if someone had been shot or hit by several bullets as a result of sporadic gun shot by the operatives of the EFCC?
“We are not obstructing justice, but things should be done properly,” he said.
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