Protesters sack FMC Lokoja

From Ahmad Ibrahim, Lokoja

Protesters numbering about hundreds, stormed the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja yesterday morning, destroying the administrative block of the health institution.

People’s Daily reliably gathered that the placard carrying demonstrators who arrived the centre as early as 6 am in the morning also beat up some of the staff on duty.

Facilities like computers and other vital equipment at the medical centre were equally vandalized by the rampaging protesters.

The development forced the staff and other visitors to the centre to scamper for safety, to avoid being harmed by the protesters, who were armed with dangerous weapons.

Similarly, the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Tunde Alabi and other senior staff of the hospital have all gone underground, even as the centre is temporarily closed down.

The protesters are angry that the health institution has allowed itself to be used by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to spread false and misleading information on the status of the state as regards Covid 19.

The protesters, mostly youths, are insisting that there is no Corona Virus in the state, and as such, cannot allowed some health officials, to be creating fear and panic in the state, through fake information.

Some of the placards read: “Why is the isolation centre in the Federal Medical Centre not utilized, compared to others across the country”, “The state government is not doing anything to check the excesses of the Federal Medical Centre”, “President Buhari, Governor Bello, do something by saving us from the Federal Medical Center”, among others.

In his reaction, the state commissioner for information and communication, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo disclosed that it was the relations of the patients that staged demonstration, insisting that they were unhappy with the way and manner the patients were being treated.