The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, has been called upon to double the investigation in bringing to book the killers of a medical doctor, Dr Uyi Iluobe, who was shot dead in a clinic on December 12, 2022, in Oghara, Ethiope west council of Delta State.
Vice president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Delta State branch, Dr Okwwuze Anthony, at a press conference in Asaba on Wednesday expressed dismay over the police preliminary investigation on the death.
According to him, the police authority in Oghara where the murder took place did not take statements from the nurses at the scene of the crime, Olivet clinic Oghara.
The vice president revealed that the association was reliably informed that there have been cases of threat to the doctor’s life by some youths in the community.
He said; “He was killed by aggrieved relatives of a patient who died from a gunshot wound in the hospital who shot him twice in the chest and left with the lady who purportedly presented herself with severe abdominal pains in a black Toyota saloon car with tinted windows.
“Prior to this incident, we gathered from the wife of the deceased that the doctor has had a brawl with some patients’ relatives in times past due to their unwillingness to pay accrued bills from services rendered by the doctor.
“Sometimes in October 2022, the deceased doctor treated a patient with gunshot wounds. On discharge of the patients, he refused the accrued bill. The issue was reported to the police in Oghara, and it was alleged the police assisted the doctor to recover his money. It was also alleged that the said patient threatened to deal with the doctor,” he explained.
While calling on well-meaning Nigerians to add their voices in condemning the gruesome murder of the medical doctor, the NMA in the state also called on the government of Delta to do everything necessary to assist the family of the deceased and the entire medical community in getting justice.
The state Commissioner of Police, Ari Muhammed Ali, who received the members of the NMA in his office, said a preliminary investigation into the matter revealed that on the said date, a female patient whose name and address are not known came to the hospital at about 7.40 pm pretending to have abdominal pain.
According to him, while the doctor was attending to her, she made a phone call to some persons whom she deceptively invited to come and pay her bill and that she was being treated by the doctor.
“Moments later, the hoodlums stormed the hospital in a Toyota vehicle, entered the doctor’s office, and shot him twice in the chest, leading to his death.
“The purported female patient fled alongside the suspects”.
“Finally it is pertinent to state clearly that the rumours making rounds that the family members of a supposedly dead patient were responsible for the murder of the doctor is completely false and should be disregarded as there is no record of any patient that died prior to the unfortunate incidence,” the police boss said.