#EndSARS: How Oyigbo community hospital was torched vandalised

The Medical Director of Divine Grace Hospital, a community-based hospital in Oyigbo, Rivers State, Dr Charles Nwabueze Ikeji, said hoodlums under the guise of the #EndSARS protest vandalised and destroyed his hospital.

Narrating the ugly incident to our reporter , Dr Ikeji said that the hoodlums invaded the hospital on October 21, beat up the security men on duty, vandalised and destroyed parts of the buildings and set it ablaze.

The director said he could not find the rationale behind the destruction of the hospital, adding that it was providing comprehensive, qualitative, accessible and affordable healthcare services to the under-privileged and the under-served citizens.

He said the hospital was the first government approved community private health care facility within Oyigbo and its environs and wondered why people would contemplate setting it ablaze.

"This well-equipped hospital with 30 staff has been providing these services for the past 16 years since there is no government hospital in the local government area," he said.

"My resident doctor told me that the hoodlums brought in a man who was alleged to have been fatally shot on the left side of the chest. They dropped him on the floor and left. The man died before the doctor could administer first aid on him.

“When the protesters heard that the man had died they came back to unleashed mayhem on the hospital complex," Dr Ikeji said.

He described the attack as brutal, horrendous and unimaginable, saying the perpetrators were misguided youths who infiltrated the ranks of the #EndSARS protesters to execute a preplanned attack on his hospital.

He said an evaluation had put the cost, including the buildings, hospital equipment, furniture and other valuables at N50,000,000

Ikeji appealed to the state government, corporate bodies, charity organisations religious bodies and public spirited individuals to come to his aid.