In a shocking revelation, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA in Imo State, yesterday, accused Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha of trafficking in human organs, allegedly with his collaborators in Kosovo, Turkey, Croatia and other countries.
The Chairman, Private and General Medical Practitioners in the state, Dr Philip Njemanze, revealed this during a press conference after an emergency meeting of the association in Owerri, the state capital. Njemanze said, “For the first time in human history, a government has declared itself an organ trafficking cartel.
Imo state government is using the state health facilities to facilitate organ trafficking network. “Foreign collaborators of the state government from Turkey, Kosovo, Croatia and others are already here in Imo to perfect creation of the network. It is an international network with Rochas as its local head. A former prime minister of Kosovo is the head of organ trafficking in Europe and he is a friend of Okorocha,” he said.
Dr Njemanze alleged that the recent trips of governor Okorocha to Turkey, Kosovo, Croatia and other Latin American and Asian countries as well as the building of the new 27 general hospitals in the state, are steps by the governor to consummate the organ trafficking business in the state. When Nigeria Pilot contacted Sam Onwuemedo, the Senior Media Adviser to Governor Okorocha, he explained through a text message that it “is an old story that is being handled by the DSS”. The Association had ordered its members in all public hospitals in the state to commence a three-day warning strike in protest over the anti-life policies of the state governor, which led to alleged shooting of their colleague, Dr Bede Azudialo, during the peaceful protest rally.
Announcing the resolution of the NMA to newsmen after a brief emergency meeting at its secretariat, the state chairman of the association, Dr Hyacinth Emele, explained that the warning strike was to make the state government and the police authority produce the police officer that shot their colleague. Emele revealed that the victim, Dr Azudialo, is a consultant family physician with the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Owerri, explaining that the association will embark on an indefinite strike if the concerned authorities failed to produce and prosecute the erring officer.
He said the doctor who was shot on the head by trigger-happy cops lost about 1.5litres of blood through bleeding and was taken to the emergency unit and Intensive Care Unit, ICU of the medical facility before being relocated to an undisclosed hospital for security reasons. Displaying the blood-stained wardcoat of Dr Azudialo, Emele said the members were in grief over the sad incident, saying it was shocking and the first instance in the world to see that armless doctors were cruelly attacked by policemen for just embarking on a peaceful rally.
Narrating the incident, another official of the NMA in the state, Dr Darlington Akukwu, hinted that the group properly applied to the police and DSS but regretted that the operatives barricaded the road at Orlu Road roundabout and used guns, teargas and other dangerous weapons to stop them from reaching the Government House, their port of call. Reacting to the development, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Imo State command, DC David Akinremi, denied that the police shot the doctor as alleged, stressing that hoodlums hijacked the protest rally.
He admitted they heard that the NMA was protesting and that policemen were mobilized to maintain the peace, pointing out that the command and NMA agreed they were not going to go beyond the Freedom Square. Akinremi denied that the police shot anybody and claimed that the doctor’s injury during the rally might have sustained while he was trying to run for his life when the hoodlums hijacked the rally and started pelting objects on police operatives on ground to maintain peace.
