By Okechukwu Nwanguma
The reported invasion of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is yet another troubling reminder of how law enforcement institutions in Nigeria increasingly operate with impunity, arrogance and disregard for professional and constitutional boundaries.
According to reports by the Punch Newspapers, masked EFCC operatives stormed the hospital while investigating a fraud case involving a suspect. What should ordinarily have been a routine investigative engagement reportedly degenerated into violence, intimidation and humiliation. Doctors and hospital staff were allegedly assaulted, teargassed and handcuffed within the premises of a tertiary healthcare institution. Professor Eyo Ekpe, a cardiothoracic surgeon, was reportedly beaten to the point of bleeding. The Chairman of the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association was also allegedly shoved and exposed to teargas while seeking clarification from the operatives.
If these allegations are accurate, then this was not law enforcement. It was an abuse of power.
Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies increasingly behave as though the mere existence of suspicion grants them unrestricted authority to invade spaces, brutalise citizens and disregard institutional protocols. This dangerous culture has become normalised because there are rarely consequences for misconduct by security operatives. Agencies created to uphold the law now routinely undermine it.
The EFCC’s justification that it was merely attempting to verify a medical report submitted by a suspect only raises further questions. Why would such an administrative verification require masked operatives storming a hospital environment? Why was there a need for force, intimidation and violence? Why could proper communication and lawful engagement with hospital management not suffice?
Hospitals are not battlefields. They are sacred spaces where lives are saved, where the sick and vulnerable seek care, and where medical professionals carry out critical duties under often difficult conditions. Invading such spaces with aggression and force demonstrates not only poor judgment but also institutional irresponsibility.
This incident also reflects a deeper and longstanding problem within Nigeria’s policing and law enforcement culture: the glorification of force over professionalism. Rather than prioritising intelligence, procedure, dialogue and due process, many agencies rely on intimidation, spectacle and coercion. Such conduct may project power, but it weakens public trust and undermines the legitimacy of law enforcement institutions.
The implications are wider than this single incident in Uyo. If doctors can be assaulted and handcuffed inside a teaching hospital, then no professional environment is safe from the excesses of state agents. It sends a chilling message that institutions and citizens alike are vulnerable to arbitrary abuse.
The outrage expressed by the medical community is therefore understandable and justified. The decision of the Akwa Ibom chapter of the NMA to seek legal redress and demand accountability should not be dismissed as institutional defensiveness. It is part of a necessary resistance against the normalisation of impunity.
What Nigeria urgently needs is not merely stronger law enforcement, but lawful law enforcement. There is a difference. Agencies fighting corruption and crime cannot themselves become violators of rights and professional ethics. The fight against corruption loses moral credibility when conducted through abuse, violence and disregard for the rule of law.
Accountability is essential. There must be an independent investigation into the conduct of the operatives involved. Officers found responsible for assault or abuse should face disciplinary and legal consequences. Anything less would reinforce the dangerous belief within many security agencies that power places them above the law.
This incident should also compel broader reflection on the culture of militarisation within civilian law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. The routine deployment of masked operatives, aggressive raids, arbitrary arrests and excessive force reflects a mindset shaped more by domination than by public service. Democratic policing and law enforcement require restraint, transparency and respect for citizens’ rights.
Nigeria cannot continue to tolerate a situation where institutions entrusted with enforcing the law repeatedly become sources of fear, abuse and insecurity. A society governed by law cannot survive where those empowered to enforce the law routinely violate it.
The assault on a hospital environment in Uyo is not just an isolated excess. It is a warning sign of a deeper institutional crisis. Ignoring it would be dangerous.
