Lab Scientists Condemn Attack On FMC MD

The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), has described the gunshot attack on the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Dr Chuku Abali, as barbaric.

Our correspondent  reports that Abali was shot by unknown gunmen at his residence in Umuahia after hosting a meeting with a delegation from Abuja.

The state Chairman of AMLSN, Mr Cyprian Nwachukwu, at a rally in Aba, Abia, on Thursday urged law enforcement agents to arrest and prosecute the culprits.

He said that those who shot Abali did not mean well for the country in general and the health sector in particular.

Wishing the medical director quick recovery from the gunshot wounds, the association chairman thanked God for sparing his life.

Nwachukwu, however, condemned the alleged arrest and detention of all the medical laboratory scientists who came to work on the day of the incident.

He stressed the need for thorough investigation into the incident, “as the innocent may be punished in the end”.

The chairman said the organised labour had not been known for violence in its agitation and the medical laboratory scientists would not be an exception.

“While we condemn in its entirety the unfortunate and barbaric shooting of the medical director, we equally condemn the mass arrest of the members who came to work on the day of the incident.

“We, therefore, call on the police to show restraint in the arrest of our members over this unfortunate incident and do proper investigation to fish out the perpetrators of this dastardly act.”

Nwachukwu explained that the industrial action embarked upon by the AMLSN members was due to the continued disregard for the practice of medical laboratory science in the country.

According to him, the law regulating the profession provides that no person who is not licenced by AMLSN should practise or work as a laboratory scientist in any hospitals in the country.

“Yet the management of some hospitals employs such persons.”