Bauchi: How gunmen stormed hospital on ‘rescue mission’

Narrating the incident to Weekly Trust, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, Dr Alkali Mohammed said  he received a report that about four gunmen entered the hospital around 5:30am and took away one of the armed robbery suspects brought for treatment.   “When they came they overpowered […]

Narrating the incident to Weekly Trust, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, Dr Alkali Mohammed said  he received a report that about four gunmen entered the hospital around 5:30am and took away one of the armed robbery suspects brought for treatment.

 

“When they came they overpowered the security man at the gate of the ward and forced him to open the door for them. They also overpowered the security men in the hospital and took away the suspect who has been in the hospital for the last six weeks receiving treatment,” he explained.

Dr Alkali said when the gunmen stormed the hospital, they harassed the patients in Ward One which is the accident and emergency unit. They asked some of the patients to lie down and they did their best to cut the chain with a cutter, because the suspect was chained to his bed and when they failed, they shot at the chain. They then took away their colleague on a motorcycle.

The CMD said: “On their way out, they threw explosives at two security vans in the hospital and the explosives damaged the two vehicles. Patients were scared when they heard loud sounds and they started running helter-skelter.”

He said hospitals, being public places, need to be secure. “After the incident, we met with the police; we reviewed the security situation in the hospital. We agreed they will increase patrol and surveillance in the hospital and they will deploy more plain-clothed policemen and other security measures.

An eye witness, a guardian of one of the patients in the Male Surgical Ward of the hospital told Weekly Trust that “we went for our morning prayers when three people entered the ward, they said ‘Assalamu Alaikum’  (peace be upon you),  please don’t panic, everybody should lie down, we have come to take away our brother. They tried to cut the chain on the patient called Aminu but they were unable to do so and had to use the gun.”

He said, “After they broke the chain, they took him away in the two motorcycles they came with, while firing shots at the gate.”

Weekly Trust learnt that there are about four policemen guarding the patients but on that day none of them turned up. “We didn’t see them that day. Initially, police brought three people including Aminu. Two of them died as a result of injuries they sustained following gun shots,” a witness explained.

In his own account of the incident, State Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar told Weekly Trust that “My house was near the hospital, when I came out and met people, there was confusion everywhere.”

The Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Abdulkadir Indabawa said: “Policemen followed the gunmen, traced them to one house in Kofar Dumi and arrested the suspect they took from the hospital and all the nine people found in the house, including four men and five women.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau told Weekly Trust that “the suspect was among the armed robbery gang that attacked First Bank and a police station in Darazo last month and he was receiving treatment in the hospital as a result of injuries he sustained after they exchanged fire with the policemen in Darazo.

Barau said: “the policemen deliberately refused to exchange fire with the gunmen because a hospital is not a battle ground and exchanging fire will scare patients and many people will either be killed or injured. We trailed them to a house near Zango where we arrested them and recovered one AK47 rifle, 98 live ammunitions, 24 highly sophisticated explosives, five handsets and two locally made bombs. All the suspects have been transferred to Abuja for further investigation.”