Nurses at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) staged a protest on Monday following the arrest of three of their colleagues by officers of the Nigeria Police Force. The arrests were made in connection with the death of a patient who passed away in the hospital without his personal information being documented.
In a show of solidarity, over 200 nurses gathered and barricaded the hospital’s main gate, disrupting vehicular movement and access to the facility. The protest also halted medical services, leaving several patients and visitors stranded outside.
According to eyewitness accounts, the incident began when an unidentified patient was brought into the hospital by a Good Samaritan, who also reportedly paid for initial treatment before leaving. Unfortunately, the patient died before dawn.
A nurse who spoke anonymously explained that tensions escalated after relatives of the deceased arrived at the hospital and discovered the patient’s SIM card was missing. They demanded that the nurses provide either the SIM card or information about the Good Samaritan who brought him in. When the nurses were unable to do so, the family reported the matter to the police.
Subsequently, three nurses who attended to the patient were arrested by the police on allegations of negligence of duty.
To demand their immediate and unconditional release, the protesting nurses marched to the Cross River State Police Command Headquarters, insisting that their colleagues were wrongly targeted.
Efforts to speak with hospital management during the protest were unsuccessful, and normal operations at the UCTH remained disrupted.
When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Irene Ugbo, criticized the nurses’ actions, describing the failure to collect the patient’s data as unprofessional and unethical.
“How can trained nurses admit a patient into a hospital without recording information about the person who brought them in? That’s basic protocol,” Ugbo stated.
However, she confirmed that the Commissioner of Police had since ordered the release of the arrested nurses and assured that the matter would be further investigated.
