Armed gunmen stormed the Oke Ijebu Primary Health Centre in Akure, the Ondo State capital, at approximately 2am on Saturday March 28, 2026, arriving in a bus and forcing their way into the facility. The attackers rounded up health workers including interns who were on night duty and bundled them into the waiting vehicle before speeding off.
The bandits beat staff mercilessly, robbed them of money and other valuables before whisking some of the health workers away. The attack occurring in what the nurses chairman described as the heart of Akure exposed the shocking vulnerability of public health facilities operating through the night with minimal or no security.
The Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives Ondo State Council, Comrade Felix Orobode, visited the attacked facility and issued a warning that has the potential to severely disrupt healthcare delivery across the state. “If government fails to secure our facilities, nurses will withdraw from night duty across Ondo State,” he declared, adding that the union’s State Executive Council is expected to take a final decision on the proposed industrial action imminently.
Orobode pointed to a fundamental and longstanding security failure at public health facilities. “You can see the security man here an elderly man, unarmed, without any security training. That is what we have in most of our facilities,” he said, warning that fear among health workers would severely impact service delivery as staff become reluctant to attend to patients during the most vulnerable hours of the night. “If health workers are afraid for their lives, how can they give their best to patients? The morale is already affected,” he added.
“I want to make this clear we are not going to wait until our members are kidnapped and we begin to raise ransom,” Orobode stated, describing the incident as an indication of worsening insecurity that has now reached the centre of Akure.
The union confirmed that discussions have been initiated with the Ondo State Commissioner for Health Dr Banji Ajaka and the Akure South Council Chairman to address the situation.
