Majority Leader, Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Suleiman Abdulrazaq, has debunked viral reports that he led thugs to assault medical personnel at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja.
The lawmaker was alleged to have led some persons believed to be thugs who attacked doctors, nurses and other staff of the hospital after he lost a patient in the health facility on Tuesday.
He was also accused of destroying some equipment at the hospital and also disarming the security guard who tried restoring order at the hospital.
Speaking with newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday, Suleiman said he was the actual victim of the incident that played out at the teaching hospital.
He narrated how his father in-law fell ill in Okene and was referred to federal medical centre but was abandoned by medical personnel till he died.
The lawmaker explained what happened with an unidentified gunman who had since been handed over to the police for investigations.
“Around 2PM on Tuesday, I got a call from my wife who is in Abuja that her father slumped at noon and was rushed to the Reference Hospital Okene. The management of Reference Hospital Okene refer the case to the Federal Teaching Hospital in Lokoja, while he was fully on oxygen support. They arrived around 3PM.
“Upon arrival at the hospital, it took the management over 30-minutes to give the old man attention, a referred patient from another hospital. They took the patient into their emergency hall, removed his oxygen mask and laid him down on one of their beds and left. No improvisation for the poor man lying half-dead. No care. No attention. All these happened while doctors and nurses at the hospital reluctantly walked pass the dying man at the emergency hall, leaving the gate to the hall fully padlocked in chains. The poor wife cried out, but her cries and plea for help for her dying husband fell on deaf ears.
“After three good hours (3-6PM), without attention or medications, the poor man gave up the ghost.
“When I got the sad news, I rushed to the hospital in company of some of my colleagues from the office. A former Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Kogi State on Domestic Matters, Hon. Kikpoye Karibo and a host of others are aware of this. I walked straight towards the emergency hall where my father-in-law was lying dead and met that the gate was still fully padlocked in chains leaving everyone no access to the hall.
“He sought to see the doctor on duty. The doctor came out and in what was glaringly an open lie, he claimed to be the only medical personnel on-ground. While this conversation was ongoing, some group of persons who lost their brother few minutes before our arrival as a result of same negligence by the management were grumbling as they moved their corpse through the back door of the emergency hall. Sadly, the boy who died before our arrival was also referred from Reference Hospital Okene. He got no attention from the hospital staffers before he gave up the ghost.
“I asked the doctor to open the padlocked gate to the emergency hall where my father-in-law was lying lifeless so we can move his corpse out. The doctor and other staffers were still reluctant to open the gate, so I proceeded to go inside through the other door they had earlier used to move the corpse of the aforementioned young boy. All of a sudden, the staffers began to create a dramatic scene as they raised unnecessary alarm that threw the whole hospital into a state of panic. Because I proceeded into the emergency ward with my aides – security and staffers to move the corpse of my father-in-law out of the hospital.
“I got to the emergency hall and wanted to move my already dead father-in-law out, but backed off when some of my aides advised we allow the hospital do their job. I left the emergency hall, proceeded to the compound to leave the hospital but saw that the entrance/exit gate has been locked.
“The securities at the main entrance gate locked the gate and disappeared from their post and made it look like the hospital was a bank and there was an ongoing heist where everyone had to scamper for safety.
“Another uproar ensued between us and some of the staffers who took it upon themselves to engage us. All of a sudden, a man from nowhere and on mufti came out from one corridor of the hospital with an AK-47 riffle and fired a shot at us, at a very close range. Engr. Kabir Onoruoiza, my elder brother, was lucky to have sustained only a bullet wound from the shot. Because he was closer to the armed man, he hurriedly held the mouth of the gun and grabbed it from him while the guy’s finger was still on the trigger and firing sporadically.
“With the swift response of the security agencies from various Police divisions in Lokoja, we were able to get over the situation. The guy who shot at us has since been arrested and currently under investigations. Our father-in-law has been buried in Okene according to Islamic rites,” he narrated.
All efforts to get the management of the federal teaching hospital to make official statement proved abortive.
However, a doctor who craved anonymity gave a different account of what transpired at the hospital.
He said the lawmaker broke into the accident and emergency ward demanding to see the doctors on duty.
“The politician and his gang held some doctors by their shirts and they were lucky to have escaped the assault unhurt.
“These men started destroying things in the ward. They descended on all hospital staff on sight, and beat them blue black.
“The chief security officer of the hospital was summoned and he came with a gun as they had become really violent. They wrestled the gun from the man, with several shots released during the struggle. The hospital gate was locked for a long time before normalcy returned,” he said.
