Tension gripped the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) on Monday as over 200 nurses staged a protest following the arrest of three of their colleagues by the Nigeria Police Force.
The protest began after theNurses Protest at UCTH Over Colleagues’ Arrest nurses were detained over alleged negligence in handling the case of a deceased patient, whose data was reportedly not recorded upon admission.
According to reports, the patient was brought in by a good Samaritan who paid for initial treatment before leaving.
Sadly, the patient died overnight. When the deceased’s relatives arrived and learned about the death, they discovered the patient’s SIM card was missing and demanded information about the good Samaritan.
Unable to provide answers, the nurses faced accusations of negligence, leading to their arrest by the police.
In response, UCTH nurses marched en masse to the hospital gate, barricading it and halting vehicular movement in and out of the facility.
The protest later moved to the Cross River State Police Command headquarters, where the nurses demanded the immediate release of their arrested colleagues.
A nurse, speaking anonymously, explained the situation, saying, “The good Samaritan who brought the patient left after making payment. When the patient died, we had no information to provide. That’s what led to the police involvement.”
Efforts to reach the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Ikpeme, were unsuccessful, as his phone line was unreachable. Meanwhile, many patients and visitors were locked out of the hospital due to the protest. In a related incident, aggrieved nurses reportedly slapped some relatives attempting to force their way into the hospital morgue.
Reacting to the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, criticized the nurses for failing to collect proper information upon the patient’s admission, calling the act “unethical.”
She confirmed that the state Commissioner of Police had ordered the release of the arrested nurses as of the time of filing this report.
