Tuesday May 12, 2026
www.thenewsdesk.ng
By Idorenyin UMOREN
Private Investigator and Security Evaluator
The Executive Director of COMPPART, Foundation for Justice and Peacebuilding, Saviour Akpan Esq, has condemned the invasion and arrest at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital by the Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, describing as a macabre dance and a show of overzealousness.
In an exclusive interview, with the Weekly SituationREPORT, a weekly crime and security publication, the COMPPART boss described the act as “a total disregard to sacred institutions where rules of engagement even in the time of war gives serious respect to. “
Akpan Esq, further said the EFCC has no authority to go outside the laws to enforce a law no matter who is involved.
Furthermore, the Executive Director of COMPPART called for the immediate removal of EFCC zonal leader, and in his words: “the Zonal Head should be relieved of his position for incompetency, disrespect to the rule of law and lack proper supervision of the men working under his command immediately while all the operatives involved in the macabre dance should be adequately disciplined in accordance to extant laws.”
Reports had indicated that the EFCC operatives disrupted activities at the Teaching Hospital on Tuesday 12 May 2026 in an attempted to arrest and molested the Chief Medical Director of the facility during the visit.
However, EFCC has reacted to controversies which followed the visit of its operatives to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, UUTH, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
In a statement, the spokesperson of EFCC, Dele Oyewale said operatives of the Uyo Zonal Directorate of the anti-graft agency went to UUTH, in Uyo to authenticate a medical report presented by a suspect under remand by Justice M.A Onyetunu of the Federal High Court, Uyo.
According to him, the suspect, who was being prosecuted for allegedly defrauding multiple Micro Finance Banks, including University of Uyo Micro Finance Bank had presented a medical report which required authentication by the UUTH management.
He said the EFCC operatives decided to visit the hospital following its failure to reply two different letters dated March 11, 2026 and April 20, 2026 it wrote to its management for authentication of the documents without receiving any response.
Oyewale said operatives of the Commission then decided to visit the CMD, but the visit went awry as they were locked in the premises of the hospital, while the workers raise what he described as false alarm and pelted them with stones and other objects.
“As a last resort, operatives of the Commission visited the Chief Medical Director of the hospital on Tuesday to make further enquiries, only to be locked in with a false alarm and subjected to unprovoked attack by misguided staff of the facility who pelted them with stones and other dangerous objects,”
The EFCC in the statement accused the CMD of directing that gates of the facility be shut against its operatives, thus making it impossible for any lawful enquiry to be made.
The Commission also said the CMD rejected appeal by police to open the hospital gates to enable the operatives exit the premises peacefully.
It however said that in spite of the hostility and provocation, there was no breakdown of law and order, noting that “the operatives exercised restraint and professionally made their ways out of the hospital premises without disrupting its activities”
“Enquiries bordering on operational engagements of the Commission are lawful. It is therefore necessary to remind the public and corporate bodies that they are obligated to cooperate with the agency in such circumstances. Contrary action could be deemed as obstruction, which is criminal with attendant legal consequences,” the statement concluded.
However, COMPPART Executive Director, condemned the EFCC operation, calling it “a show of shame.”
According to Akpan, “the EFCC can invite you and investigate you under Section 6 of the EFCC Act. If you refuse, it has to go to court for a warrant before it can arrest you or declare you wanted. It cannot unilaterally detain you indefinitely without judicial backing.
“A situation where due process as stipulated by law are not followed amount to overzealousness and Third degree policing which is alien to Democracy and should be condemned because it can be anybody tomorrow,” he concluded.
However, the Akwa Ibom State Police Command have rebutted the allegation by an Online Medium that it’s operatives invaded The Uniuyo Teaching Hospital, UUTH, assaulting Medical personnel’s and staff of the health facility.
The rebuttal was conveyed in a Release issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO of The Command, DSP Timfon John on behalf of The State Police Commissioner, CP Baba Mohammed Azare, in Uyo on Tuesday and made available to The Matrix Newspaper.
According to The Rebuttal statement, the said operation was carried out by officers of The Economic an d Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, as a lawful assignment.. The PPRO stated unequivocally that The Police Command in the state did not take part in the operation.
Meanwhile, healthcare services across Akwa Ibom State were disrupted on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, after the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, declared an indefinite strike following a dramatic confrontation between doctors and operatives of the EFCC, at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, UUTH.
In a communiqué issued after an emergency virtual meeting on Tuesday, the NMA accused EFCC operatives of storming the hospital and assaulting Professor Eyo Ekpe, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Deputy Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of UUTH.
The association alleged that the senior doctor was beaten, handcuffed and taken away alongside other doctors and hospital workers who reportedly tried to stop the arrest.
“That Professor Eyo Ekpe was apprehended within the premises of UUTH by masked EFCC operatives who physically assaulted him, beat him severely to the point of bleeding and forcefully took him into custody,” the communiqué stated.
The doctors’ body further alleged that gunshots were fired within the hospital environment while some persons who recorded the incident had their phones seized.
The NMA also claimed that its state chairman, Professor Aniekan Imo Peter, was shoved and exposed to teargas when he approached the scene to seek clarification from the operatives.
Angered by the incident, the association announced an immediate and indefinite withdrawal of medical services across the state and demanded the release of all detained doctors and hospital staff.
The NMA also demanded a public apology from the EFCC and threatened legal action against the anti-graft agency with a N1 billion damages claim over what it described as physical, emotional and professional trauma suffered by its members.
