Doctors withdraw services to protest police harassment in Lagos
Medical doctors in Lagos State have withdrawn their services in protest against continued harassment and intimidation by men of the Nigeria Police.
The police on Tuesday night threw caution to the wind as they swooped on persons categorised as essential workers and exempted by the Federal Government’s curfew to check the spread of COVID-19. Medical workers and journalists are among those exempted, but some of these categories of persons were arrested and detained at some police stations in Lagos while heading home after the close of work Tuesday night.
The doctors under the aegis of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said the action remains indefinite until they receive a written assurance clearing the air on the “conflicting directives by the government and incessant police harassment” of medical doctors and other health workers in the state.
The Lagos branch of the NMA, in a statement jointly signed by Saliu Oseni, chairman, and Ramon Moronkola, secretary, said the sitat-home order began from 6pm on Wednesday, May, 20, 2020.
They maintained that it was no longer safe for their members to continue to provide healthcare services under the present confused arrangement. They said the development became necessary as a result of the numerous complaints of police harassment from their members who were either going home after close of work or on transit to heed to emergency calls at the various hospitals.
The doctors lamented that whereas the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari, through the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19, was clear on the exemption of essential workers including doctors and other healthworkers, Hakeem Odumosu, the commissioner of police in Lagos State, has been issuing conflicting directives that essential workers, including doctors and other healthworkers, were not exempted.
“As a direct result of the conflicting directives of the government and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, the NMA was inundated yesterday ( Tuesday, 19th of May, 2020) evening of several cases of harassments and intimidation of doctors and other health-workers by officers and men of the Lagos State Police command. The healthcare workers were either resuming duty, returning home, or on-transit to heed an emergency call,” Lagos NMA said.
The body said there was a most disturbing case of an ambulance conveying an injured patient which was prevented from moving to destination while the attending health-workers were harassed and temporarily detained.
“You will recall that this same ugly situation had occurred sometime in the early phase of the ongoing lockdown/restriction of movement based on similar conflicting directives from the State Commissioner of Police. It took the intervention of the governor of the state, following a petition by the association, for normalcy to be restored,” it said.