"This is one of the harsh treatments we face but [it is] not known to public. Doctors are not allowed freedom. They still beat us for speaking to the press. What security harm will this camera or interview cause for goodness sake?" the perplexed NMA chairman asked.
On Friday, policeman leading a team of other security guards attacked a TV crew in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) during an interview with a medical doctor on the hospital premises.
The crew was asking questions about the doctors' industrial strike and its consequences given the reported outbreak of Ebola virus in Lagos. In the course of this, a squad of police and security guards swooped down on the TV crew and demanded to take them away, along with their equipment. The action was based apparently on directive by the LUTH security administrative personnel, but they failed in their efforts to seize the crew and their cameras.
The policeman, flanked by security guards in their uniforms, ordered the interviewer to follow him, but was resisted.
The person being interviewed was the new Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Lagos State, Dr. Tope Ojo. The doctor had preferred that the interview be done on the premises due to absence of electricity.
However police alleged it was unlawful to conduct any interview within the premises of LUTH.
As the argument escalated, more doctors appeared and refused attempts by the police to arrest the crew. The doctors argued it was abnormal to harrass journalists who were merely conducting interviews on the premises of a public hospital.
The doctors threatened they would take the issue up with the authorities.
"This is one of the harsh treatments we face but [it is] not known to public. Doctors are not allowed freedom. They still beat us for speaking to the press. What security harm will this camera or interview cause for goodness sake?" the perplexed NMA chairman asked.
Another member of the NMA, Dr. Adeyelu, who felt embarassed by the situation, insisted it was time to take the issue of restriction of doctors' freedom up. "When we return from strike over their taking of public heal for granted, we will then face this issue and protest against it. Can't we grant interviews anymore, or if anyone would come to spy, would they come with open cameras like this in the age of mobile phones and hidden gadgets?" Dr. Adeyelu said with obvious curiousity.
Their arguments with the police and security guards saved the situation, which they condemned outright, promising to request for improved ways of handling security other than harassing journalists.
Footage of the scene is captured below.