General News of Saturday, 25 August 2012

Source: Daily Guide

Mamobi Polyclinic Attacked

A doctor at the Mamobi Polyclinic, Dr. Zakaria Alhassan, was allegedly pushed to the ground and assaulted for about five minutes after a gang of motorcyclists descended upon the medical facility on Wednesday night.

The motorcyclists had earlier run over the security detail at the gate, beating up one of the security men whose name was given as John Agabe.

The gang rode to the medical facility, DAILY GUIDE learnt, after their colleague on admission at the place made a call to them, the reason for which is yet to be determined.

The hoodlums, who proceeded to the main building of the hospital after overrunning the security detail, attracted the attention of both patients and staff as a result of the noise they were making and the picture of a raid they presented.

One of the staff made an SOS call to a member of the neighbourhood watchdog committee but before the volunteers could reach the place, a police patrol team was there and with the support of the volunteers who turned up eventually, four of the hoodlums were rounded up.

Dr. Zakaria, who was on duty at the time of the raid, told DAILY GUIDE what happened at about 10pm on Wednesday night.

“A drunken motorcyclist who had gone to pick a card from the cards section was making a lot of noise. I came out of the consulting room to find out what was happening,” he said.

Dr. Zakaria noted that a man identified as a member of the neighbourhood watchdog committee was engaged in a talk with a female patient “and I asked them to stop talking as we had to work.

The man who was identified as a neighbourhood watchdog member slapped me. I was pushed to the ground and trampled upon like a common criminal for about five minutes”.

Dr. Zakaria Alhassan explained however that he was not known to many persons at the hospital as, according to him, he was only doing a locum or part-time work at the place.

“I do locum between Monday and Thursday because a certain Dr. Dovlo is away from work. I am a permanent staff of Ga West Hospital at Amasaman,” he said.

The member of the neighbourhood watchdog committee who was mentioned by the Dr. Zakaria Alhassan as the one who slapped him, in his narration, explained that it was the doctor who attacked him first.

Bature Djageru, who is the vice chairman of the Nima Neighbourhood Watchdog Committee, said, “We have a security arrangement with the polyclinic by which the security personnel call us when they require our intervention. I had such a call by one of the security personnel that they were under attack.

I called one of my colleagues to move to the place. I went to the place personally afterwards and found a woman lying on the ground.”

The woman, he claimed, narrated how she advised the security men to stop the motorcyclists from entering the place.

Dr. Zakaria, he added, “screamed at me to leave the place as he condemned the woman’s narration. The woman showed me the object the motorcyclists used on the security man.

When I asked the doctor, whom I did not know at the time, ‘who he was’, he charged on me and I pushed him away. He bit my finger as one of my colleagues came to my rescue.

My colleague and the doctor fell to the ground. This was when I realized that he is a doctor at the place”.

Both the doctor and the neighbourhood watchdog committee gentleman have written statements at the Kotobabi Police Station and investigations are underway.