Health workers at the University of Benin Teaching hospital (UBTH) are still puzzled over what could have made gunmen to kill a medical doctor Dr Otote Osaikhuwuomwan
who worked at the hospital.

It was leant that 36-year-old Osaikhuwuomwan was was shot dead by his killers at his residence on Monday at Ugbor area in Benin City in the presence of his pregnant wife.

The spokesman of the Nigeria police, Edo State Command, SP. Kotongs Bello confirmed the incident.

He revealed that the police operatives attached to the Division where the incident was reported have commenced preliminary investigation into Dr. Osaikhuwuomwan’s death.

Kotongs assured that the findings of the police would be transferred to the police headquarters for further investigation.

On Tuesday, doctors on the platform of Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), UBTH branch staged a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the Government and other relevant agencies to the worsening state-of-insecurity in Nigeria.

Addressing the protesters, the President of the ARD, Dr. Elamah Ikpemimoghena, described the tragedy which occurred in early hours of Monday as one too many and called on relevant government agencies to investigate, arrest and prosecute Dr. Osaikhuwuomwan’s killers.

He said: This is a very unfortunate incident, it came to us as a rude shock and it boils down to the general insecurity in the state and in the Country at large. Something that we have always complained about, something that has made a lot of our colleagues reconsider their stance in working in Nigeria.

“Insecurity is gaining a very scary trend and that has led to a lot of brain drain, a lot of our members have left the country just because of insecurity.

“We call on the relevant authorities to ensure that they bring the perpetrators to book and give justice to our friend, our brother, a hardworking, calm fellow.

“Somebody that we know cannot hurt a fly, we don’t know why this happened to him but we hope that God will grant the family, the department and everyone here in UBTH and NARD the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss”, he said.

Also speaking, the spokesperson of ARD, UBTH, Dr Era Eugene, raised serous concern about the circumstances that led to the doctors death.

According to him, “What is of particular concern to us in respect of this incident is we are concerned about the nature of the incident.

“Information available to us suggest that his apartment was the only apartment robbed in the compound and why it is worrisome is.

“It looked more like a targeted attack. We are having concerns about that and it is our opinion that the security operatives rise up to the occasion”, Eugene said.

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