Doctors threaten strike over assault on members in Ekiti

By Boye Oyeyemi –

Resident doctors at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti, have threatened to down tools following an assault on two of their colleagues by students.

President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), EKSUTH branch, Dr Ayodeji Olatayo, told reporters at the hospital that the incident was “barbaric and uncalled for.”

He urged the state government to apprehend the culprits before 6 p.m. today or risk an industrial action.

Olatayo stressed the need for patients and their relatives to respect health workers, warning that further attacks would no longer be tolerated.

Also speaking, a former NARD president and chairman of the EKSUTH Inter-Allied Forum, Dr Adeyemi Famous, urged the state assembly to enact a law criminalising assault on health workers.

He said, “Our members were also attacked some weeks ago; there is a need for the Ekiti State House of Assembly to put in place laws to make those found in such acts pay for their actions.”

Famous called on security agencies to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, saying the union would not fold its arms while members were subjected to attacks.

WESTERN POST reports that trouble started on Friday when some students injured in an accident were brought to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.

They reportedly assaulted two doctors, accusing them of negligence, leaving the victims with injuries.