The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has moved to defuse a massive national outcry by offering apologies to the medical community following a highly controversial raid by its operatives at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) in Akwa Ibom State.

The move comes as the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, intervened in the crisis, revealing that senior EFCC officials from the Abuja headquarters visited the ministry to acknowledge that a mistake was made during the operation.

The incident, which occurred during an attempt by the EFCC’s Uyo Zonal Directorate to verify a suspect’s medical report, triggered chaos within the tertiary health facility. According to the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), masked anti-graft operatives stormed the premises, physically assaulted a renowned professor of cardiothoracic surgery, Prof. Eyo Ekpe, and left him bleeding before taking him and four other staff members into custody. Witnesses also alleged that operatives fired shots into the air and deployed tear gas, causing panicked patients, visitors, and health workers to flee for safety.

In response to the barbaric and inhumane invasion of the sacred hospital environment, doctors in Akwa Ibom State immediately withdrew their services and embarked on an indefinite strike, while threatening a N1 billion lawsuit against the commission.

While the EFCC initially issued a statement denying any physical assault or formal arrests—maintaining that its presence was purely administrative to authenticate a document—the mounting backlash from civil society, senior lawyers, and the medical community forced the agency to bow to pressure.

Following the oral apologies tendered through the Federal Ministry of Health, Minister Ali Pate directed the striking healthcare workers to suspend their industrial action and resume duties on humanitarian grounds.

He also announced the constitution of a ministerial committee, comprising representatives from medical associations, human rights practitioners, and ministry directors, to fully investigate the UUTH incident and establish protocols to prevent the harassment of health workers by security agencies.

Meanwhile, the NMA has partially softened its stance by suspending the strike across most public health facilities in Akwa Ibom State out of empathy for dying patients. However, the association has left the strike active at UUTH and the University of Uyo, giving the EFCC a two-week ultimatum to replace its verbal admission of guilt with an unreserved written apology published in national dailies, identify and prosecute the erring operatives, and adequately compensate the victims.