The Police Command in Borno State on Friday cautioned hospitals in the state against denying medical care to accident or gunshot victims without police clearance.
Edet Okon, Police Public Relations Officer of the command, gave the advice in a statement issued in Maiduguri.
Okon said that the force would want to correct this erroneous impression of no medical attention for gunshot or accident victims without police clearance.
“The police is stating categorically that no such clearance is needed before accident and gunshot victims are attended to.”
“The Command wishes to restate its respect for the sanctity of human lives and urges all medical facilities that receive such victims to expedite treatment to save their lives.
“However, it is required that cases of gunshots/accidents received by any hospital should, while treatment is ongoing, be immediately reported to the police for follow-up investigation and other necessary actions,”he said.
Fuji music star, Alhaji (Dr.) Sefiu Alao Adekunle who is more known as Sefiu Alao, is grateful for being alive today after surviving a gunshot while performing at a party in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State over a year ago.
While another woman spraying him with naira notes was not as lucky, Sefiu Alao had to be rushed off for medical attention. He would return back to performing just a week later.
The shot came from the rifle of a drunken policeman engaged to provide security at the event.
However, in a recent chat, the Fuji musician who is a Muslim hinted at employing ‘traditional means’ to escape the gunshot.
“Well, due to the nature of the job I do and all the risks that are attached to it, it is not out of place for me to protect myself in every way I know,” he said.
“If not, I would not have been the one standing here to answer your questions today.”
He also advised his fellow Fuji musicians to do all they know to protect themselves as they travel locally and internationally.
“I seriously advise my colleagues to go the extra mile when it comes to protection, because the Yoruba believes that, “die okunrin o to” (a man should not leave anything to chance). And that is what saved Sefiu Alao’s life when the incident happened a year ago.”
AT the end of 2008, there was a tragic story in the newspapers about a young 8-year old boy that died from a single gunshot wound that could have been treated. The story was about a bank robbery that happened in Lagos, which culminated in the death of eight civilians. However, the death of the eighth casualty, the young boy — who was hit by a stray bullet — could have been easily avoided. This is because when the child was rushed to a nearby hospital by passersby, the staff of the hospital refused to treat him without a police report. Needless to say, in the time that it took for the police report to be requested for, written out, and transported back to the hospital, the 8-year old boy bled to death. Issues like the aforementioned story are rampant.
We hear about them everyday; read about them in the news; and watch news reports about victims that could have been saved. However, based on current legal practices, many lives have been lost. This is why, this week, the Senate fast-tracked the passage of the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill. The Bill, which was sent to the Senate for concurrence by House of Representatives, seeks to ensure that all victims of gunshot wounds receive necessary treatment from medical workers and assistance from security agencies. The Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, was right when he stated after the passage of the Bill, that with the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, the Senate has moved to ensure that everyone is entitled to medical treatment — irrespective of the cause of the shooting.
This is because so many lives have been lost in the absence of this law. As things stand, innocent victims who have been shot by robbers, must first be rushed to a police station to secure a police report, before they are rushed to the hospital for treatment. This situation, creates victims of people who would otherwise be survival. This is because having a system in place that forces both the good and the bad people who have been shot to first request police reports before going to the hospital, makes the innocent people among them victims of circumstance (i.e. robberies, or stray bullets); victims of the hospitals, who refuse to treat gunshot victims without police reports; victims of the police, who oftentimes do not process these requests in a speedy manner; and victims of Nigeria’s current laws that make police reports mandatory for both law-abiding citizens and criminals alike.
By the passage of the Gunshot Victims Act, the Senate has moved Nigeria one step forward to saving tens of thousands of lives each year. This law has addressed several inadequacies — like ensuring that society has a burden placed on it to ensure that there will be no unnecessary loss of lives. Moving forward, based on certain provisions of the new law, every person, including security agents must render every possible assistance to any person with gunshot wounds. T
his assistance includes ensuring that the person that has been shot is taken to the nearest hospital for treatment. Additionally, the Bill preserves the fundamental rights of gunshot victims by mandating that no person with a bullet wound shall be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment and that no person with a gunshot wound shall be refused immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria — whether or not an initial deposit has been paid or not. Finally, the Bill takes the approach of several nations, that have a ‘treat first, ask questions later’ mindset.
This is because it specifies that it shall be the duty of any hospital that receives any person with a gunshot wound to report the situation to the nearest police station. This amendment puts the horse back in front of the cart, because saving lives must always come before due process. Moving forward, Nigerians must commend the National Assembly for the passage of this Bill, and urge that it is signed into law by the Acting President. On top of this, the Presidency and the Executive arm must properly orient officers and men of security agencies to comply with the dictates of this law. Doing this, will show the world that we have society that values the lives of our citizens, more than we value the ‘perception of adherence’ to the rule of law. I rest my case. • Onemola is a Legislative Aide to the Senate President
Suspected kidnap kingpin Chukwudumeje George Onwuamadike (aka Evans) has confessed that the gunshot scar on his shoulder came from the injury he sustained during a 2006 bank robbery in Lagos.
This is contrary to his earlier claim that he got the injury during a fracas following a drug business in South Africa in 2007.
Evans, who was confronted with a newspaper interview that indicated the scar was as a result of a gun duel between him and his gang members at the National Theatre in Surulere, Lagos Mainland, admitted that he lied earlier.
According to the suspect, he and his gang members robbed a bank in 2006. While sharing the loot, there was a disagreement, which led to a fight.
He admitted that they started shooting themselves, adding that many of the robbers died. He was seriously injured and abandoned by the others.
The kingpin also admitted that he was arrested by the police, adding that he and two others were transferred to the Imo State Police Command, where they were released.
The officer in charge of the Inspector General of Police’ (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Abba Kyari, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said: “Evans was confronted with the interview on Sunday and he admitted that the bullet wounds are from disagreement over sharing of loot after bank robbery in Lagos in 2006. They shot one another and many gang members died while Evans survived with bullet wounds.”
A Superintendent of Police with the Band section of the Police College in Lagos, simply identified as Tina, reportedly sought to get the case being put together against Evans after the bank robbery dropped. Her attempt was rebuffed.
She reportedly travelled to Owerri from where a report was sent requesting the transfer of Evans to the command because of another case he was involved in, which they claimed was under investigation.
The kingpin was quietly released inOwerri. Tina is believed to be related to Evans’ mother.
The Nation gathered that the police were out to fish out all those who participated in the 2006 release of Evans and two of his gang members. They are to be prosecuted.
It was also learnt that the police have begun a manhunt for another soldier said to be a member of Evans’ gang.
The soldier whose identity is yet to be revealed, it was gathered, was attached to one of the Army formations in Lagos.
A source said the police had the soldier’s names and pictures, adding that they would leave no stone unturned in arresting him.
“He should have been arrested on Saturday night but we believe he might have gone into hiding after his colleague, Victor Chukwunonso, was caught. That was why the police high command did not want to release information on the arrest of Chukwunonso because there are so many others being investigated.
“But I know he would be caught. Our bosses will simply approach army authorities with evidence and request that he be handed over to the police.
“It is true that they have started looking for that Tina woman and many other officers who were serving at the Imo State Command at that time that Evans was released. So many heads will roll in this matter.”
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director-General Muhammed Sani Sidi, in this interview with TONY AKOWE, provides insights into the condition of women and children freed from insurgents in the Sambisa Forest. Among other things, the DG said most of the former captives came very ill, some with gunshot and bomb blast wounds. Excerpts:
The insurgents began to hurt Nigerians since they hurled their first bomb and fired their first bullet. Graduating from public nuisance to claiming swathes of territory, Boko Haram fighters have assaulted everything Nigerians hold dear, giving new assignments to emergency workers.
•Sidi attending to one of the women at the camp
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have had its role scaled to unknown levels. Its Director-General Muhammed Sani Sidi knows how much the agency’s duties have changed, how demanding they have been, especially since troops rescued many captives from the terrorists’ lair.
What hasbeen NEMA’s experience managing the rescued victims of insurgency?
I must say that the security agencies in Nigeria have done very well in the fight against insurgency. Just recently they recorded huge successes by rescuing about 300 women and children from Sambisa Forest who were under the captivity of Boko Haram. When they were rescued we received a call from the military authorities that they would be handed over to the National Emergency Management Agency. Don’t forget we have about 14 camps in Adamawa State alone and because of the successes recorded by the military in the fight against insurgency, most of the communities that were under the occupation of Boko Haram have been recovered and now peace has returned so the IDPs are beginning to move back to their various communities, making it necessary for the agency to begin to reduce the camps.
At the moment we have six camps which we call residential camps that are presently hosting about 27,000 IDPs in Yola in particular and we have over 200,000 living within the host communities. We see the receipt of this rescued women and children as just an added responsibility to what we have been doing as an agency with IDPs. We consider them special because they have been under captivity for a long period of time. Obviously most of them are women and 70% are children below the age of five. Out of the 275, sixty-three came unaccompanied and that is very worrisome; it is a terrible situation to have children under the age of five unaccompanied, meaning they have lost their parents and we cannot link them with their parents at the moment, six of them came with pregnancy and that is a sympathetic situation.
That contradicts the claim that most of the women returned pregnant
That is not correct. I must put it on record that only six of them came with pregnancy and we must add, however, that we must be very careful not to stigmatise these innocent Nigerians who were under captivity and came back with pregnancy so that we don’t end up stigmatising the child that is yet unborn. I think we must respect their rights and be careful of the way we talk about the issue.
Who is responsible for these pregnancies?
I think we must really de-emphasise the issue of these pregnancies; what is important for us as an agency is the welfare and well-being of these women and children, and that is what we have been focusing on. You recall we received them in the middle of the night and our staff waited for them like for two days because of the logistics of transporting them from Sambisa Forest to our camp in Yola. When they came they were very weak and sick. Out of the total of 275, about 158 came very sick, so we had to do an assessment, profile them and some that had serious ailments were transferred to the Federal Medical Centre in Yola. Those that could be taken care of in the camp within the capacity of doctors and nurses were taken care of in the camp.
What was the nature of their ailments?
Most of them came especially the children had eye diseases, malaria, fatigue; they came looking very hungry, tired and traumatised. You can imagine people living under that kind of horrible condition. We had to immediately organise for trauma counselling and other requirements like feeding, clothing and even personal hygiene.
Have you been able to assess the true identity of these rescued women?
We have carried out assessment of the rescued women and children and before they were even delivered to us in our camps, the military have done profiling to ensure that they are not security risks and that they are innocent people captured by the insurgents and rescued by the military. What is left for us is to identify where they came from and that we have done and then we have assessed them medically and we shall continue to monitor them, especially the children. Some of them have also sustained various degrees of injuries, from gun shots, bomb blasts and they have been referred to Federal Medical Centre where they are receiving treatment.
What were the specifics of the military profiling, and has NEMA carried out its own independent assessment?
Our assessment is limited to their conditions, we are not a security agency; the military have done their job by profiling them and ensuring that they are not security risks. They could live in our camps like any other IDPs but they are special to us. They are different from the normal IDPs that are resident in our camps because these are people who were under captivity for a long time, they are traumatised so they need counselling, they need support so as to be rehabilitated back into the society.
What is the humanitarian condition of the rescued women and children?
Emphasis is now giving to the rescued 275 women and children, but before their arrival we have been managing IDPs. Like in Borno we have over 10 camps; in Adamawa we have six residential camps and we have IDPs in host communities who are more in number. We have been managing these IDPs for the last five years and we have enjoyed tremendous support from the Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe state governments, where we have camps in the Northeastern part of the country. Humanitarian activity cannot really be done effectively by one agency, so there has to be collaboration and synergy between all the humanitarian actors. I must say that we have been receiving tremendous support from other actors. We have received training and support for our personnel from the UN system, the Nigerian Red Cross Society has been with us throughout these trying periods, they have been in all our camps and all the other state emergency managements agencies and indeed NGOs and civil societies. It has been a close collaboration and I must say they have all done very well.
Is there any peculiar challenge in managing these special IDPs?
Indeed they are special IDPs because, like I have said, they are people who need special attention. Most of them are children and our greatest concern are those 63 children that came unaccompanied and we have to find the ways and means of unifying them with their parents or families and that is a huge challenge. They can hardly speak, they are small kids just following the other groups looking lost and we are working side by side with all the other agencies working with us to identify their parents.
Has there been any effort to trace their roots?
Certainly, the first step is to establish information centres where people can give information, where the IDPs too can pass information to the camp management on matters that affect their situation. What I am saying is: it is going to take time. Just a few days ago some people came and identified their children, they are not among the 63 but we have other unaccompanied children in almost all the camps. Sometimes we are lucky we have people coming to identify such children as their parents and once the authorities [establish such claims] we hand them over to the parents.
Are you saying some parents have shown up?
Yes, but not in the case of the 275 children and women.
What is the proof of parentage claims?
There are procedures of verification before the children are handed over to parents in accordance with international best practices.
How are those that came with ailments responding to treatment?
I must commend caregivers in the camp because as at the time they arrived, most of them could not even stand on their feet. Now they are gradually recovering, even the mothers were so malnourished that they could not even breastfeed their children. It was terrible but now we noticed significant improvement and we have other agencies with specialty in nutrition that are assisting the nursing mothers and children to see that they recover quickly.
Are the camps good enough to help the IDPs get back to their feet?
I must say that the environment which they live is to a larger extent conducive. All the facilities required to live decent life are provided. We have electricity, water supply, sufficient toilets, adequate sanitation and hygiene and most importantly we have enough food to feed the IDPs.
As I was picking the papers, I heard a gunshot and someone shouted ‘give me the money’. I did not even know I was the one who was shot since I did not feel anything.”
These were the words of Victor Ahiuma-Young, Vanguard‘s Assistant Labour Editor, who relived yesterday, on his hospital bed, how he was attacked by robbers on Tuesday at Sadiku Busstop, Ilasamaja on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
He said he never knew he was shot until blood started gushing out of his body, adding that he just left Eco Bank where he withdrew some money when he incident occurred.
Speaking with The Nation at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where he was transferred to after 13 pellets were removed from his body at May Clinic in Ilasamaja, Ahiuma-young said despite his cries for help while staggering to the clinic, nobody came to his aid.
HE decried the high robbery rate in the area, calling on the police to ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and prosecuted.
The reporter said: “I left Eco Bank and walked for about a minute or two to a vendor’s stand to get newspapers. It was between 10am and 10:15am. As I was picking the papers, I heard a gunshot. I turned to know what was happening and a guy holding a locally made pistol shot me.
“It was at that point that I bent down, picked a stone and hurled at him. I was about picking a second stone when he shot me again.
“This time, the money I was carrying in a brown envelop fell and he took it and jumped on a waiting bike.
“I only realised I had been shot earlier when I saw blood all over me. I was bleeding profusely. I was running and shouting for help. I was saying I will fall, please help me but no one answered me.
“I ran from the scene to the hospital, which is less than five minutes. Thankfully, the doctors attended to me and sent for my wife, who was at home (about 25 minutes walk from the scene), to process police report.
“At the station, I learnt the policemen kept dribbling my wife until I told her to call a colleague of mine who contacted the Police Commissioner before the policemen could come to the hospital for the report.
“It took them more than one hour and 30 minutes to come and process the report, I just thank God that the doctors did not wait for them before administering first aid on me, else it would have been something else.”
Asked if there was connivance between his attackers and the bank, Ahiuma-Young said he doubted the possibility since he has been using the bank for over five years.
“Normally I drive to the bank on my way to work, but because of the frustrating traffic around the Mile2-Apapa axis of the road, I changed my route and follow Ojuelegba instead.
“Because this has never happened to me since I started using the bank and I have even made higher transactions, I do not want to think there was connivance with the bank staff.
“However, there could be three possibilities – maybe one of the criminals was in the bank to monitor people making withdrawals and followed me out; or maybe they saw the brown envelop on my hand and followed me; or they just hang around the banks (Eco and Diamond) to attack anyone coming out.
“I don’t recognise my assailant but he’s a small boy. He was wearing a faded Jeans and T-shirt and spoke very well. He was confident and sounded educated. He had no mask on,” Ahiuma-Young said.
Expressing fears that he may not be able to use two of his fingers which pierced by bullets again, Ahiuma-Young said he may undergo surgery.
He said: “Two of my fingers are fractured. I cannot use them. At the moment, I am awaiting results of scans although one of the doctors who attended to me said one of my fingers was shattered and they had to stitch it.
“The second one, the bullet pierced through to the other side, leaving a hole. Also, my thigh, close to my testes was also stitched as that was where I was first shot.
“Thirteen pellets were removed from my thigh. It is just the grace of God that kept me. The situation is quite unfortunate. It appears we are under siege. Even motor park touts will harass people.
“We live in fear in that neighbourhood. People have been complaining about robbery and cult activities but I never knew it was so pronounced that in the full glare of all, at a busy bus stop like that, I would be shot and robbed.”
Victims of gunshot wounds will henceforth be treated without Police report, the report on a Bill for an Act to make Provisions for the Compulsory Treatment and Care for the Victims of Gunshot and Other Matters Connected Therewith has said.
House of Representatives members adopted the report last Thursday.
The report, which was sponsored by Nkiruka Onyejeocha (PDP, Abia), Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, was passed and adopted after consideration at the Committee of the Whole.
Mrs Onyejeocha, arguing the bill, said: “The issue of conditional access to medication by victims of gunshot in Nigeria has generated thorny arguments among scholars, policy makers, medical practitioners and the general public.”
“The central thesis of the argument from all sides revolves around the issue of saving lives vi’s-avis the provision of the extant law”.
According to her, the misinterpretation of the provision of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap 398 of 1984 has been largely responsible for the refusal of medical practitioners to attend to gunshot victims which often time leads to loss of innocent lives.
The lawmaker said passing the bill will give unrestricted access to medical services by victims of gunshots; as well as strengthen legal provisions and guarantee peoples’ fundamental rights to life and dignity of their persons.
A legislation with 18 clauses, the bill covers all aspects of gunshot injuries and the circumstances thereto if signed into law will make it mandatory for medical facilities to attend to individuals with such injuries without recourse to police report or approval for the purpose of saving lives. However, immediate notification must be made to the police regarding such cases.
“Despite the Act providing that, it shall be the duty of any person, hospital or clinic that admits, treats or administers drug to any person suspected of having bullet wounds to immediately report the matter to the police, medical institutions in Nigeria have severally refused to attend to victims of gunshot requesting such victims to produce police report.
“The refusal of hospitals and other medical facilities to attend to gunshot victims amounts to a negation of the fundamental human rights of those victims to life as enshrined in the relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, she said.
Clause 1 of the bill states: “As from the commencement of this Bill, every hospital in Nigeria whether public or private shall accept or receive for immediate and adequate treatment with or without clearance any person with a gunshot wound.
According to Mrs. Onyejeocha, the refusal to treat victims of gunshot also amounts to a negation of the ethics and oath of the medical profession (to save lives) which practitioners swore to keep.
Hospitals denying the provision of medical care and attention to gunshot victims until police report is produced, as it is the practice in Nigeria is not supported by cross-country experiences in places such as the United Kingdom and Canada,” she noted.
Clause 4 of the bill states: “It shall be the duty of any hospital that receives any person with gunshot wound to report the fact to the nearest police within two (2) hours of commencement of treatment”.
While Clauses 5 and 6 of the bill give the police power to immediately begin investigation into the circumstances surrounding the gunshot upon receipt of a report from the hospital authority; and must not take the victim away from the facility until it is certified by the Chief Medical Director of the hospital that the victim is fit enough to leave and is in no further need of Medicare.
A penalty of six months imprisonment is stipulated by clause 7 of the Bill for doctors who fail to notify the police of such cases and a fine of N100,000 (hundred thousand) on any erring hospital. Clause 9 recommends five years imprisonment with a N50,000 (fifty thousand) fine on anyone who willfully withholds information from the police authority.
