Uyo, Nigeria – Operatives of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested four staff members at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, triggering an indefinite strike by medical workers.
Okay News reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission visited the facility to authenticate a medical report submitted by a suspect standing trial before Justice M.A. Onyetunu of the Federal High Court in Uyo.
The agency stated that its operatives approached the chief medical director after the hospital management failed to respond to two letters sent on March 11, 2026, and April 20, 2026. The agency said its personnel were locked inside the premises, subjected to a false alarm, and attacked by hospital staff who threw stones and other objects.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Medical Association in Akwa Ibom State, Gabriel Eyo, said the operatives assaulted the Deputy Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee, Effiong Ekpe. “In the early hours of this morning, masked men wearing EFCC jackets stormed into the hospital premises, walked into the office of the Deputy Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee, Prof. Effiong Ekpe, and beat him to a pulp,” Eyo said.
Eyo said the operatives used force against personnel who attempted to intervene during the arrest. “They dragged him like a common criminal. When members of staff, students and other health workers tried to resist them, they shot sporadically into the air and dispersed the crowd with tear gas,” Eyo said.
The Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Baba Azare, said police officers accompanied the agency officials to verify the operation after receiving a call from the hospital management. “The EFCC went for an arrest in the hospital this morning, and the CMD called me to verify if my men were among those in the hospital,” Azare said.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Akwa Ibom State, Aniekan Peters, directed doctors across the state to suspend services, and the Joint Health Sector Unions announced a total shutdown of hospital activities in protest.
