Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The FCT Police has arrested five persons for making a prank in the hospital on the corona virus pandemic.
The suspects, four males and a female, were paraded before reporters over the weekend by the spokesman of FCT Police Command DSP Anjuguri Manzah.
Manzah said that the suspects, Peggy Shandi, Abayomi Adedoyin, David Gold Enemigin, Jacob Orji and Priscilla Ajeshola were arrested for acting a script in the Emergency Ward of Wuse General Hospital Abuja that portrayed one of them to be critically ill and was down with the Corona virus.
He said the hospital became suspicious of the persons, when effort made by the medical personnel to administer medical care to the patient was being filmed by the same persons that brought him.
Manzah said on the strength of the complaint from Wuse Hospital management, Police operatives from Wuse Division were deployed to the hospital where the suspects were arrested.
“Though the suspects claimed that they were trying to stage an emergency medical scene, preliminary police investigations revealed that the suspects acted without the consent and approval of the hospital,” Manzah said.
He added that the command was still carrying out investigation on the issues, adding the suspects will be arraigned in the court upon the conclusion of investigation.
He said they were still working with the hospital to verify if indeed one of the suspects was afflicted with Corona Virus.
One of the nurses on duty on the fateful day, Chinwe Ijeoma, said there was commotion among hospital patients and staff, who took to their heels when a man shouted ‘corona virus!’
“A man raised an alarm which attracted us and scared some patients. We saw a man and lady in the reception. A green substance was foaming in the man’s mouth. Curiously, a cameraman was also recording the scene. Later the man came to my unit and wiped his mouth, saying it was a prank. This got me angry. Other staff joined and called our Managing Director, who reported it to the DPO, who arrested them,” Ijeoma said.
Reacting one of the suspects, Shandi said they acted the script to sensitise the public to the danger of the disease which has killed 250 people mainly in China.
Shandi, who gave the name of their medium as Television Nigeria, insisted they were not criminals. He also admitted they erred in not seeking the permission from the hospital before dramatising the corona virus script.
However, the Director FCT Public Health Secretariat, Dr Mrs Josephine Okechukwu has condemned the motive of the suspects, saying it was capable of creating pandemonium in the country about the spread of corona virus in the country even when no single case was yet to be reported.
“I think the police should handle this case. If these guys were trying to play a scrip as they are claiming, it is a wrong one as it was being played in a hospital where it could scare patients and spread falsehood that FCT has a case of corona virus,” Okechukwu said.
