Pandemonium in Benin Specialist Hospital as SSS clashes with NSCDC men over slumped officer
By Elvis Omoregie, Benin
There was palpable tension at the Edo Specialist Hospital in Benin City on Monday morning that lasted for hours as personnel of the State Security Service (SSS) clashed with private guards and men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) over alleged unprofessional response by medical personnel in the State Government owned facility when the SSS brought in one of their men that slumped while in a meeting in their office.
It took the intervention of Policemen who were called from the Oba Market Police Station and the Chief Security Officer (CSO), Government House before calm was restored.
Journalists sighted an unmarked white Hilux Van conveying the suspected personnel of the SSS wearing a jacket from the hospital premises.
At the end of the chaos, some people sustained injuries including the private security guards and a female personnel of the NSCDC.
An official of the SSS said, “We were in a meeting when he slumped and he was rushed to our health facility to check his pulse. We then rushed him to the Edo Specialist Hospital which is the closest to our office, but the reception we got there was poor.
“It was our people that had to bring our colleague down from the vehicle. When you go to the hospital, courtesy demands that you bring the patient down and attend to him or her, at least show commitment; but right in the car, they said they cannot carry him and we have to carry him down ourselves.”
When contacted, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr David Odiko said the patient was promptly attended to by the doctor on duty who confirmed him dead as at the time they brought him, but that the SSS personnel refused to accept it.
He said, “I was not in the hospital when the incident happened because I was in the court for a case. It was from there they called me and as at the time I came, they had left, but I met policemen on ground.
“They brought him in as an emergency. He was said to have slumped and the doctor on duty went to check and he said he met the guy lying on the seat of the car and that there was no breathing movement because that is the first thing you see; if you can see that the chest and abdomen are moving, he didn’t see that then he proceeded to check if there were still pulse and heartbeat which were also absent. He said he still proceeded to do CPR, but there was no response.
“The diagnosis the doctor made was that he was brought in dead and they said they were not going to take that, and they personally moved him into our facility and dropped him on the floor. I was told that another group of personnel moved, they actually injured the Civil Defence personnel that was duty on her head.”
