A private hospital, Olivia Specialist Hospital and Maternity, located at No. 57 Obioma street, Achara Layout, Enugu, has been deserted.
The hospital was deserted on Thursday when police operatives swooped on its compound over alleged child trafficking, Blueprint has gathered.
It was alleged that a girl gave birth in the hospital but the child was sold, which prompted the lady to raise the alarm.
An eyewitness who was in the hospital when the detectives arrived, said nobody was allowed to enter or leave the hospital until the proprietor showed up since the nurses ran away on suspecting that the operatives came on a mission.
According to the eyewitness, patients and visitors were held hostage by the three detectives, two men and a lady on plain clothes.
“I went to visit my cousin that gave birth to twins by Caesarean operation when the police came and locked us in.
“A patient that was discharged was about to pay when they arrived. They waited to see who would come and collect the money but all the nurses were nowhere to be found.
“The husband to my cousin who came with two of his children to see their mother and their siblings were also held hostage. He called the agent that introduced them to the hospital but he told him to be patient but did not show up.
“It was when one woman started lamenting that she needed to go and breastfeed her baby that she and I were allowed to go home while others remained locked,” the eyewitness who preferred anonymity said.
Investigation showed that it was in the evening that all the patients and other visitors were allowed to go.
The entrance was open but the protector was locked from inside.
All the people in the vicinity, feigned ignorance of what transpired on Thursday at the hospital and even said they never knew that it was deserted.
“I don’t know anything about the hospital. It has not been long I came to this area,” a shop owner very close to the hospital said.
“I didn’t know that police came to the hospital yesterday. I traveled. I just came back this morning. I have not been around,” another resident said.
When the police spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe, was contacted, he said the incident had not been reported.
“I don’t have such report, please,” Ndukwe said on phone.
