Doctors under the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) on Saturday staged a peaceful protest in Lagos over alleged continuous harassment by the police and growing concerns over social media attacks on medical practitioners.

The protest, held at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, drew medical professionals who said repeated arrests and intimidation of doctors were affecting healthcare delivery and putting patients at risk.

Speaking during the protest, Chairman of ANPMP, Lagos State, Dr Jonathan Esegine, said doctors were being “hounded at will, abducted from their practices, harassed, intimidated, mistreated and imprisoned at will for no just cause.”

He alleged that the Nigerian Police, particularly the Criminal Investigation Department at Panti, had turned the arrest of doctors into a routine, often detaining them without proper investigation.

Esegine said, “There have been instances where doctors have been yanked away from attending to patients. They could spend days in detention, and while that is happening, services are shut down and patients are deprived of care.”

He cited a recent case in Lekki involving a young doctor and a nurse who attended to two children brought to a hospital in critical condition.

Esegine said the doctor and nurse were thereafter detained for about one week during the Easter period, despite interventions by the association to secure their release.

He warned that the trend could force doctors to begin practising defensive medicine, where fear of arrest affects urgent medical decisions.

“Doctors will now begin to practise defensive medicine. When you confront a medical emergency, you begin to ask yourself, should I attempt it or not? If it fails, the police will jump in and label you with murder,” he said.

He added that doctors were not responsible for determining life and death, stressing that medical outcomes were not always predictable.

“We are not God. We have been trained to save lives, but we cannot guarantee life. Even with the best care, patients can still die,” he said.

Also speaking, the National First Vice President of the NMA, Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu, said only the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria had the authority to handle cases of medical negligence.

“Things can happen in medical practice, and the only agency authorised to speak on negligence is the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, not the police,” he said.

Olowojebutu warned that continued harassment could worsen brain drain in the health sector.

“We are very passionate people. We want to continue serving this country. We are patriotic. We do not want to leave Nigeria, but this police harassment is pushing us away,” he said.

He added, “Let doctors breathe in Nigeria so that we can solve our problems with passion, with empathy, with value and with love.”

The Lagos State Chairman of the NMA, Dr Saheed Babajide Kehinde, also said doctors were increasingly being judged unfairly both by security agencies and on social media.

He said, “Doctors are human beings. We are not perfect. We are not God. What we have is training and knowledge to try to save lives, but we cannot determine life or death.”

Kehinde called on the police and other government agencies to stop the harassment, while urging the media and the public to verify facts before drawing conclusions in cases involving medical practitioners.

He added that issues relating to alleged medical negligence should be handled MDCN, not the police.

“If this situation does not stop, it will affect healthcare delivery and put the lives of Nigerians at risk,” he said.