Battles over the coronavirus pandemic assumed new dimensions at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, Kogi State, last Wednesday, when a hail of bullets shattered the serenity of the facility. It was a new low in the state’s official position on the pandemic that has killed more than 603 Nigerians. Kogi State officially has four patients on admission.
Who were the gunmen who arrived in their numbers? What were they looking for in a hospital? Who were they acting for? A few of their actions answered the questions, though they could be part of the befuddlement.
They shot enough times to scare away anyone who could have been on their way. They took laptops belonging to FMC staff, shattered some doors, and upturned a couple of tables.
In a matter of minutes they were gone, revving their vehicles in manners only thieves do. It was a daylight robbery that succeeded in some ways that could put further hindrances in the way of patients seeking medical succour at the facility, whether for coronavirus or other ails.
Governor Yahaya Bello insists that the state was free of the virus. His proof remains 111 tests that the state claimed it conducted with its own equipment, without supervision of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and without any Covid-19 approved laboratory in the state. The 111 cases in May all returned negative.
Kogi carries on without tests that other states are conducting at approved facilities to halt the spread of the virus. Doctors in the Kogi are scared that they are on the line of attack of the virus as they attend to patients with unknown health circumstances.
Agwu Nnanna, chairman of the resident doctors at FMC, Lokoja, had spoken out about the state government’s attitude which had hindered NCDC and other stakeholders from tackling the virus in Kogi State.
A press conference was planned last Wednesday on the state of the virus in the state. It seemed that the attack was to disrupt the evidence and take away whatever records that FMC had. The attackers were also said to have taken cash at the accounts department.
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), officers at FMC were reportedly told not to engage the attackers. The hospital management wanted to avoid a bloodshed.
FMC personnel maintain that they had treated patients who had the virus before transferring them to NCDC, Abuja. The Kogi State Government insists there were no cases in the state. The State Chief Judge, Justice Nasiru Ajanah, died last Sunday at an isolation centre in Abuja and was buried in Abuja in line with Covid-19 protocols. Bello says the state was free of the pandemic. He explained that Justice Ajanah died from a protracted illness.
Its remains inexplicable what motivates the governor’s drive on insisting that his state was Covid-19 free, contrary to the position of experts. The lifting of inter-state travels makes what is going on in Kogi more dangerous. Thousands of passengers pass through the state daily to other parts of the country.
Has a prize been established for Covid-19-free state that Bello wants to win?
According to the state government, Wednesday’s attack on FMC was a scuffle involving FMC personnel and relations of patients. “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 a day before (Tuesday) when patients and their relatives learnt of a plan by the medical staff to stage a protest today (Wednesday), seeking protection from COVID-19,” the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Kingsley Fanwo, said.
Is it acceptable practice in Kogi State, for disputes between patients and a hospital to be resolved by gunmen? Was that statement the government’s approval of the attack on FMC? Why is there no surprise or condemnation of the incident by the Kogi State Government? Did the aggrieved patients and their relations tell the state that they would use gunmen at the hospital? Were the affected patients admitted at the accounts and administration departments?
By failing to condemn the attack, the Kogi State Government has made FMC, Lokoja unsafe. In not proposing measures to secure the facility, Bello would scare patients away from the hospital.
No matter what the death figures become in Kogi, no matter what kills people in Kogi, it is only His Excellency Governor Yahaya Bello, who has the expertise to disclose the cause of death, as His Excellency pleases.
President Muhammadu Buhari should call Bello to order; the threat he poses to the safety of Nigerians and other residents of the country, is stretching beyond Kogi.
Ikeddy ISIGUZO
Isiguzo, a major commentator on minor national issues, writes from Abuja.
