Protesters numbering about 15 Wednesday attacked the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, Kogi state, for rejecting a pregnant woman without evidence of COVID-19 negative status.
The pregnant woman who was labouring and about to give birth was rushed to the hospital , but was rejected by the doctors and nurses.
An eye witness in the hospital, Mr. Mustapha Usaman, said the husband of the woman , a Nupe by tribe, brought his wife to the hospital around 6 am Wednesday but was not allowed to enter the labour room. She eventually gave birth in an open space without assistance from the nurses and the doctors.
Usman said the action of the medical personnel in the hospital might have angered some relatives of the woman who vented their anger by attacking the staff of the hospital with cutlasses and broken bottles.
“I was in the hospital during the incident because I have a patient there. The husband of a woman after the scuffle came with a car that took the baby and the mother home for proper care,” Usman said.
He added that for more than two months the doctors and nurses in the hospital have not been attending to patients because of the outbreak of COVID-19, a situation he said resulted in the death of many people in the state.
Attempts to speak with the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Olatunde Alabi, proved abortive as all calls put across to him were not successful.
Meanwhile, the Kogi state government through the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, has urged the people of the state to remain calm saying the government will ensure maintenance of law and order.
