With the severe migration of Nigerian doctors to foreign lands in a search for a better future, some Nigerians are yet to appreciate the doctors still applying their knowledge to help other Nigerians. On the 31st of December, 2022, some family members of a deceased patient decided to take laws into their hands by venting their anger and frustration on the medical doctor who treated their deceased family member.
The Nigerian Medical Association has condemned the murder of one of its members, Dr Uyi Iluobe, who was reportedly killed by relatives of his patient at a hospital in Oghara, Delta State.
Reports gathered that Iluobe was murdered on December 31, 2022.
The NMA, in a statement by its President, Dr Uche Ojinmah, on Monday, urged the National Assembly to criminalise violence against healthcare workers in the country.
Ojinmah said, “The Nigerian Medical Association received with shock and sadness the news of the murder on December 31, 2022, of Dr Iluobe by the relatives of his patient at Oghara, where his practice was based.
“The above scenario being the response of the relatives to the loss of a patient from suspected gunshot injuries can never be justified and has taken violence against doctors and other healthcare workers from injuries to murder.
“It is unbelievable that in the face of a debilitating medical brain drain, the few doctors that patriotically decided to stay back and take care of our fellow citizens are being murdered by same Nigerians.
“While we sympathise with the family of the patient that was lost, we strongly condemn this murder and call on the Government of Delta State, and the Inspector-General of Police to, as a matter of urgency, to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to book so as to assuage the pain we feel. A man should not be murdered for the selfless act of being on duty on New Year’s Eve.”
