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General News of Wednesday, 1 July 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Attack on FMC carried out by families of COVID-19 patients - Kogi State

Yahaya Bello Yahaya Bello

The Kogi State Government has said that the attack on the Federal Medical Center, FMC, was carried out by relative of the COVID-19 patient abandoned at the hospital.

A report had it that a press briefing on COVID-19 which was scheduled to hold at the FMC was disrupted by some gunmen who carted away laptops, phones and documents.

In reaction, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, said that the disruption was caused by families of COVID-19 patients protesting the abandonment of the relatives by staff of the hospital.

He said, “The attention of the Kogi State Government has been drawn to the unfortunate scuffle between the Staff of the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja and some patients' relatives at the hospital, this morning.

Preliminary findings revealed that the violence ensued when relations of patients in the medical facility protested against the failure of the management of the hospital to attend to them. Many people in the emergency ward were left unattended to and a mother delivered at the gate of the hospital. That generated a lot of public tension in the state.

Tension started building since yesterday when patients and their relatives learnt of a plan by the medical staff to stage a protest today, seeking protection from COVID-19. We urge the people of the state to remain calm as government will ensure maintenance of law and order.

We also sue for calm and urge medical authorities to remain committed to their medical profession and responsibilities as Government will protect them in order to give them the confidence to deliver. Healthcare management must never be politicized. Also, government will carry out further investigations to ascertain the remote causes of the breach of peace by the protesters and also address their fears.”