Osun NMA Expresses Concern Over Rising Insecurity As Bandits Kill MAC Chairman

By Ayobami Agboola, Osogbo

Chairman Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Prof Jerome Boluwaji Elusiyan has been killed by suspected bandits.

According to a statement made available to CityMirrorNews in Osogbo on Sunday, Prof Elusiyan was killed while coming back from Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (the teaching that train medical students of Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma).

The ugly incident according to the statement occurred on Friday December 13, 2019 when the suspected bandits accosted him and shot him to death.

The statement, which was signed by Dr. Taofeek Akinniyi, Secretary, NMA Osun State Branch, lamented that in the last few months, bandits have been attacking communities and motorists on Nigeria highways.

Dr Akiniyi said that deceased was an external examiner at the just concluded paediatrics clinical examination of this university.

Describing the colossal loss and rude shock, Dr Akiniyi said Prof Elusiyan death has thrown medical practitioners in Osun State and members of the Association into mourning and discombobulated melancholy.

“This gory incident was the machination of a bunch of mindless marauding bandits who were overzealous and executed their attack on this armless, innocent, and industrious citizen who was investing his quota towards the realization of increase manpower in the health sector.

“The unabated spate of this attack on our highways is becoming unbecomingly incessant, worrisome, and mind boggling. It is a reflection and manifestation of laxity in the operational capabilities and activities of relevant authorities saddled with the responsibility to secure and protect lives and property of citizens, who are becoming gradually pessimistic and hopeless.

“These bandits are emboldened with imaginable gut to unleash various dimensions of criminalities on people plying our highways since the government is not demonstrating genuine political will to stem the tide of highway security breach.

“This is a clarion call on the government to be more effective in tackling insecurity, be alive to delivering on its mandate, cherish the sanctity of humanity, the fundamental dignity of existence and the need to launch a combative measure capable of mitigating the endemic menace of highway massacre by these wicked perpetrators of danger and insecurity.

“Not too long ago, the nation witnessed series of serial highway murder of invaluable professionals whose expertise and skill were needed for nation building, unfortunately, the expectation that this trend will cease is appearing dashed, and it seems the system is not ruthless enough to deescalate the tension that is characteristic of the highway but rather it has allowed the atrocity to fester and thrive. Countless number of innocent souls had been lost to these hoodlums without sign to mitigate these attack on patriotic citizens.

“The Nigeria Medical Association, Osun State branch, expressed our disheartened dejectedness over the untimely death of one of our own whose exit had created monumental vacuum in the medical practice. We want the government to not only fish out the reckless orchestrators and perpetrators of this dastardly act, subject them to face the consequences of their deed, but also formulate appropriate policies that will secure our highways, guarantee protection of lives and property, and redeem the diminishing hope for good governance in order to prevent lawlessness and anarchy in this respect.

“This is attack too much for us to bear as we pray that God grants the bereaved the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss of a rare gem.”