Medical doctors under the platform of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Imo State chapter, who had embarked on a peaceful protest to the Government House to lodge their grievances against the state government over alleged impunity in the health sector, were Thursday attacked and forcefully dispersed by a police team.
The doctors had marched peacefully until they got to the warehouse junction, accompanied by policemen but without warning a police barricade in front unleashed canisters of teargas on the doctors forcing them to retreat.
In the haze of the teargas, Dr. Bede Azudialo, a consultant family physician was shot in the head and left in a pool of his blood. He was immediately rushed to an undisclosed hospital.
But the Imo State Deputy Commissioner of Police denied the attack saying the protest may have been infiltrated by hoodlums.
Speaking to newsmen after the incident, the Chairman of NMA, Dr. Emele Hyacinth, said that doctors were peacefully protesting an alleged plot by government to shut down private hospitals, allowing only the concessioned general hospitals to thrive.
The doctors were also condemning the appointment of a non-medical personnel in the person of Barrister Ngozi Njoku, a politician, as the state’s Commissioner for Health.
