Workers of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, have foiled a suspected attempt to abduct the Medical Director of the institution, Dr. Monday Igwe.
It was gathered that three stern-looking men had arrived the facility Thursday afternoon in an unmarked Toyota Siena bus, and moved straight to the office of the medical director.
The development caused panic in the hospital.
Sources in the hospital told our correspondent that the men had wanted to drag Igwe out of his office before words went out.
While workers started milling around the MD’s office, some of them who were already agitated demanded to know the mission of the ‘intruders’.
They were said to have quickly raised the alarm which attracted the attention of other staffers of the establishment.
“By this time, the hospital’s security personnel locked the entrance and exit gates, ensuring that nobody came in or went out of the premises while information was quickly sent to the DPO, New Haven Police station”, one of the sources said.
It was further gathered that upon the swift arrival of the police, the suspects disclosed that they were police officers from the Zone 13 Command, Ukpo in Anambra State.
They were said to have claimed to have come to arrest the medical director based on a petition against him.
Their explanation did not go down well with the enraged workers who queried the surreptitious manner they wanted to whisk their boss away.
But, the DPO took the men to the state police command headquarters where further investigations were being carried out.
Speaking with newsmen on Friday, a leader of one of the unions in the hospital said accused one of the staff of the school of post-basic psychiatric nursing of being behind the petition.
The unionist who wondered why the staff in question had embroiled in one crisis or another in the hospital in the last 13 years said that he reportedly engaged the services of non-existent civil society organisations to destabilise the hospital.
“Those people actually came with sinister motive. It took the intervention of the workers to save the situation before the DPO came with his men. They wanted to literally abduct him, but we resisted their attempt,” he said.
Neither the police nor the institution’s Medical Director would speak on the issue.
