The Nation Newspaper

Tag: gunshot victims

  • Police warn hospitals against rejection of gunshot victims

    The Lagos State Police Command, on Wednesday, warned hospital authorities against the rejection of gunshot victims or the attitude of asking for police report before treatment.

    A press statement signed by the command’s spokesman, SP Chike Oti, said the command had to repeat the warning, following a report that one hospital in Ikeja rejected a gunshot victim.

    “A senior engineer, Mr Adebayo Akinwunmi, with one information and communications technology company, was shot and wounded by armed robbers in his house at Ofada-Mokoloki, Ogun.

    “He was brought to Reddington Hospital, Ikeja for treatment only to be refused admission on the grounds that there was no police report.

    “The command considers the action of the hospital as cruel; perhaps, an indication that the hospital management may be ignorant of the “Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017.

    “In the light of this development, the Command wishes to inform all medical practitioners in Lagos state, that the Act demands that every hospital in Nigeria, whether public or private;

    “Shall accept or receive for immediate and adequate treatment with or without police clearance any person with a gunshot wounds.

    Read Also: Suspected herdsman defiles girl, 14, in Abia community

    According to him, the Act, however, requires the hospital treating such a patient to report the fact to the nearest police station within two hours of the commencement of treatment.

    “The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Mr Imohimi Edgal, has directed all Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers in the state to henceforth prosecute any medical practitioners, who reject gunshot victims for reasons of no police report.

    “Medical doctors should note that the Act recommends a five-year-jail term for any person, hospital or authority, who stands by or omits to do his bit, which results in the unnecessary death of any person with bullet wounds,” the statement read.

  • Why I sponsored bill on treatment of gunshot victims, by Senator

    Why I sponsored bill on treatment of gunshot victims, by Senator

    SENATOR Monsurat Sunmonu (Oyo Central)  has defended her bill authorising medical treatment for gunshot victims.

    Mrs. Sunmonu, in a November 2016 Bill, called for authorisation of treatment of such victims in medical institutions.

    Before now, such victims were expected to present a police report before accessing medical treatment.

    The restriction was aimed at preventing armed robbers, who sustain gunshot wounds from accessing medical treatment.

    But this became counter-productive as it led to the death of many innocent Nigerians who were robbed on highways or in their homes.

    The Senate deliberated on the vexed issue and eventually directed police to allow such victims to be treated before a report is ready.

    With the successful passage of the bill, victims are now allowed to receive medical treatment before a police report clearing them of any offence.

    In an April 8 statement, the Oyo State Police Command directed hospitals to treat victims of gunshot wounds before processing a police report.

    The development has since saved many lives.

    Speaking with The Nation at the weekend, Mrs. Sunmonu argued that many gunshot victims often die since hospitals demand police reports before treating them.

    She said if they are treated immediately and their lives are saved, the police may be able to interrogate them and extract more information from them about criminal cartels.

    The former Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly added that it was not only criminals, who were not being treated but that innocent people, who had been the victims of crime, had also died because they were not treated.

    The senator called for a look at the bigger picture, arguing that failure to treat such persons was equivalent to a deprivation of the right to life –  a constitutionally enshrined right that can only be removed in execution of a judgment of a superior court.

    She called for training of police officers and medical workers to deal with victims and those who help in a non-accusatory manner.

    Mrs. Sunmonu said members of the public were often afraid to help victims for fear of being treated like suspects and saddled with responsibility of proving their own innocence just because they rendered help.

    She said there was a need to build public confidence in the system.

    The lawmaker expressed satisfaction with the police directive, saying she was happy to sponsor a bill that saves lives of many innocent citizens.

     

  • IGP urges doctors, others to assist accident, gunshot victims

    IGP urges doctors, others to assist accident, gunshot victims

    The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, has urged medical personnel and members of the public to attend to accident victims and persons with gunshot injuries.

    He however noted that the police should be informed for necessary action after attending to them.

    He explained that the call is necessary due to neglects and untimely death of victims following fear of being implicated without Police involvement.

    The Police High Command also ordered its Officers not to harass good Samaritans in this regard, but endeavour to elicit correct facts in relation to incident from them.

    This is contained in a statement issued on Friday by the Force Spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu.

    The statement read: “Doctors on duty are equally duty bound to treat victims of gunshot wounds and further inform Police of relevant facts. The safety of Nigerians is a collaborative effort of all and sundry.

    “Police therefore, enjoin citizens not to relent in their cooperative attitude in ensuring safety of all. While they are also to report any suspicious person or persons to the nearest Police Station.”

  • Hospitals and gunshot victims

    Hospitals and gunshot victims

    •They don’t have to reject them; but they must inform the police immediately about such cases

    Again, for the wrong reasons, the police are in the news. On Wednesday, August 21, the ancient town of Ikorodu, in Lagos State, was plunged into chaos and confusion, when a policeman attached to the Ikorodu Division shot dead an ‘Okada’ (commercial motorcycle) operator. The man was killed while trying to prevent the policeman from impounding his ‘Okada’. His ‘crime’ was that he was riding on a road where ‘Okada’ is banned and he refused to ‘settle’ the policemen who demanded a fraction of the motorcyclist’s daily earning in exchange for their winking at the infraction.

    The fatal shot led to the grounding of social and commercial activities in the town as the colleagues of the deceased went on the rampage to protest his cold-blooded murder.

    Hardly had the nation recovered from this embarrassing situation when the police struck again; this time in Lagos.

    On Sunday, Adamson Bello, a 60-year old deejay, was killed by a stray bullet fired by a policeman attached to the Okokomaiko police division. According to the account of the incident by Bello’s widow, the deceased was sitting in front of a house when one of the policemen on guard duty at a nearby hotel fired a shot which hit Bello in the chest.

    As soon as the policemen realised what they had done, they fled the scene, leaving the dying deejay in a pool of blood.

    The widow’s hope of saving her husband was dashed, when the hospital she rushed him to refused to accept him, on the ground that she had no police report to explain the gunshot wound. To compound her agony, the policemen at the Okokomaiko station, the same station where the policeman who shot her husband was attached to, refused to give her a police report. In desperation to save her husband of 30 years, she decided to take him to a hospital in Badagry. She lamented: “My husband died when we got to the Badagry General Hospital.”

    It is unfortunate that the story of police brutality has become a recurring decimal in our nation. Although the police are supposed to be our friend and their slogan says so, many Nigerians would proclaim that with friends like the police, no one requires an enemy. There are reports that arrested suspects still die in police custody; that extra-judicial killings remain an article of faith with the police.

    The Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured alive by the army and handed over to the police, only for him to be killed. These two recent incidents of police brutality have again brought to the fore the urgent need to pursue aggressively a programme of reforming our police.

    For a start, the trigger-happy policemen who terminated the lives of the ‘Okadaman’ and the deejay must be made to face the full wrath of the law. The murders must not be swept under the carpet as that is one of the ways the police can attempt to regain public confidence.

    Secondly, the police must, as a matter of urgency, mount a public enlightenment campaign and write all hospitals in the country that their obnoxious and inhuman directive that gunshot victims should not be treated by hospitals without a police report has been withdrawn.

    Gunshot victims, like regular patients, should be treated promptly but a report must be made to the nearest police station immediately such persons are brought to the hospitals. Refusing to treat a gunshot victim on the flimsy suspicion that he could be an armed robber or that the police would frown at such, is a violation of doctors’ Hippocratic Oath.

    The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has sworn not to preside over a corrupt and bloodthirsty police force. How he handles these two cases will be a test of his commitment to his vision of the police of his dream.