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- Trauma rocking my mental health – Victims’ mother
Members of the National Assembly from Delta State have waded into the case of the sons of Fidelis Omhonria family who were hit by NDLEA officials’ bullets in Opanam area of Asaba. Last Saturday, we reported that one of the boys died from the gunshots while the other whose eye was shattered by bullets was yet to get the necessary assistance needed to fly him abroad for medical treatment eight months after experts made the recommendation. INNOCENT DURU, however, reports that the lawmakers aforementioned have vowed to help the victims get justice.
A silver lining seems to have appeared behind the dark pall in the family of Fidelis Omhonria one week after we published a report on the gruesome murder of their two-year old son, Ivan, and the shattering of the left eye of the younger brother, Eromonsele, with bullets from the guns of the agency’s officials.
The lawmaker representing Delta North in the House of Representatives, Hon Ngozi Okolie, assured in his response to a text message from our correspondent during the week that he was on top of the matter. Our correspondent had sought to know what he was doing about the matter as a representative of the people.
“Thanks a lot,” he began as he acknowledged The Nation’s efforts in reaching out to him. “We are following the case.”
“I have reported to the House Committee on Narcotics who is the over sighting committee to NDLEA. Our members are not happy about the situation.
“Sadly, we are presently on vacation and the Chairman of NDLEA is away to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj.
“But trust me, we are on top of the matter and I have communicated same to the parents of the young boy, ” Hon Okolie said.
Also responding to our enquiry via a text message, the lawmaker representing Delta North Senatorial District, Senator Ned Nwoko, said he did present the case on the floor of the Senate a few days after the tragic shootings.
“The matter is currently before the Committee on Public Petitions. Justice will certainly be served once the committee concludes its investigations.
“I am the senator representing the family (Delta North). It is my duty to represent my constituents and ensure proper and appropriate representation.”
Efforts to speak with the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Narcotics, Hon Abass Agboworin on the phone, however, yielded no result. He neither responded to calls nor replied text and WhatsApp messages sent to his mobile line.
The Delta State House of Assembly also appeared to be less concerned about the incident and the predicament of the beleaguered family.
It was learnt that no resolution had been passed by the Assembly since the incident occurred and nothing had been done by the lawmakers to prevail on the state government to fulfill the promise made on television to take care of the bills incurred by the family.
The governor had received thunderous applause after making the promise but not many knew that nothing had been done in respect of the promise many months after. It is fast becoming what the youths refer to as audio gift.
Repeated efforts to speak with the Delta State Majority Leader and Chairman House Committee on Information, Hon Nwaobi, was also rebuffed in the manner that Hon Agboworin shut himself out of speaking on the issue.
Calls and text messages to his mobile phone were ignored as the representative of the people appeared reluctant to play a part in the matter.
Victims’ mother relives fruitless battles with trauma
The mother of the two toddlers hit by bullets fired by NDLEA officials in Opanam Area of Asaba on July 13, 2023, Hilda Omhonria, is still struggling to deal with the trauma of losing his first son and the frustration of getting the agency to facilitate the treatment of the second son’s eye that was equally hit by bullet abroad.
Since the incident occurred eight months ago, the NDLEA has not deemed it necessary to make her and the family members see a therapist. They have been left to lick their wounds and deal with their woes all alone.
“I have been thoroughly traumatised,” Hilda said in a conversation with the reporter.
“I haven’t been able to see a specialist to help me manage the trauma.
“Each time I close my eyes, the incident flashes in my head.
“When that happens I find I difficult to sleep.
“To deal with it, I try to look for something else to consciously think about so that I would be able to sleep.”
Hilda said besides herself, their eldest child, a female, had also found it difficult dealing with the traumatic experience which she also witnessed.
“You may just catch her crying somewhere. She breaks down often and not even once in a while.
“She would ask me, why did DLEA kill my brother? Because she won’t be able to say NDLEA. She’ll just say, DLEA. That’s what she knows. Why did they kill my brother? Will my brother come back? Why is it taking time for him to come back and all that.”
To calm her down, Hilda says she always tells her daughter the truth. “I just let her know that her brother is not coming back. So, she’ll just start crying, ‘I missed my brother, I missed my brother.’
“Before school went on vacation, she would just come in the morning while getting ready for school and tell me, ‘I want to go to school with my brother. When will my brother come back? I want to go to school’. Then she will start crying.
“She just cries at random, saying that she misses her brother.”
It’s been herculean taking care of my Eromonsele
Asked how she has been managing to take care of the injured son, Eromonsele, Hilda said: “It has been very challenging because I have to take note of time. I have to be conscious of time and him too not removing his eye guard.
“His eye guard is meant to prevent infection and prevent his hands from coming in contact with his eye.
“Once he has the chance to come in contact with the eye, he scratches it until blood begins to come out with tears. That is why I have to be very conscious looking after him.
“I have to be with him all the time.”
Continuing, she regretted that Eromonsele’s health condition is not as good as it used to be.
“He used to be a very healthy child; very healthy and agile child,” she said.
“But it is no longer that way. He cannot associate with his peers. He always wants to remove his eye guard to see what is inside.
“And if he does, you know children with their hands, he can easily touch his eyes.”
Also speaking on the embattled son’s appetite, the distraught mother said: “He does not eat as much as he used to. Even if he doesn’t want to eat, I’ll just force him to.
“I think he is still traumatised, because when the incident happened, when I raised the brother (who had bullet pierce through his chest), I saw him just rooted to a spot. That was when I noticed his eyes.
“I just saw him just standing in one place shocked. I grabbed him alongside his brother. So, I think that shock is still in him.”
Seeing the son’s age mates vacating school at the end of the term last week, tears rolled down Hilda’s eyes. The term would have been Eromonsele’s first time in school but the incident made that impossible.
She said: “My son was supposed to be enrolled in school this January but the incident has made that impossible. There’s no hope that he’s going to start anytime soon. He can’t start school now.
“But I’m trying to do the best I can in the house. That’s when he responds. I just try to engage him but it will not be like when he is in school where the peer group is there and they will be so interested learning together. So, I just try to do the best I can.”
Incident stopped me from working
The challenges that the shootings by NDLEA officials have caused for the family could be said to be multi-faceted. Aside from the loss of their first son, Ivan, threat to the second son’s sight and the financial, emotional and psychological setbacks, Hilda has been forced to quit her job.
She said: “I have not been going to work since the incident occurred. It has not been easy for the family.
“Work isn’t the issue for now. All I want is for my baby to be fine. I can’t leave him for anybody.
“I have to be with him all the time. I have to administer his medication in hours, and in minutes. So, I have to be on the alert.
“Like I said earlier, I have to be conscious of time and him too not removing his eye guard.
“His eyeguard is meant to prevent infection and prevent him from coming in contact with his eye.
“My eyes are on him every second.”
She recalled that she really didn’t go to work on the day the incident occurred but only went to just see how things were going.
She said: “A day before the incident, I didn’t even go to work. The day it happened, I went to just see how things were going; not that I really had anything doing.
“We were even almost planning to go back home. My husband just dropped my kids with me after bringing them back from school.
“After dropping them, he drove off, and that was when it occurred to me that, ah, we would have gone home now.
“Then, I told my kids let’s wait a little. We’ll call daddy to come back and pick us up. It was not even up to five minutes after that that the incident happened.”
Hilda bemoans claims that family requested for treatment abroad
Still trying to deal with the challenges she has at hand, Hilda expressed shock at claims in some quarters that the family insisted on medical treatment for their son in the US instead of having him treated in the country.
She said: “These people that are going around saying we were the ones who asked the doctor to refer us, I don’t know why they just decided to gang up and make such accusations, because my child was already kept on anesthetic in the hospital.
“We had already paid for the surgery. He was already taken to the theatre. Fifteen minutes later, we were called. I was even scared. Calling us 20 to 30 minutes after he entered the theatre got me scared.”
The first surgery the son had, Hilda said, took good six hours.
“He went into the surgery room at 12 a.m. and came out 6 in the morning. So, when the doctors called me 20 minutes after he was taken to the theatre at the Eye Foundation, Lagos, I was so scared. We had to run to the theatre when they said doctor was looking for us.
“It was then that the doctor started explaining to us how he couldn’t see through the eyes and all that. The doctor said if we had money that the best thing was to take my son out of the country. He said that would be the best option.
“He said at least over there, they’ll be able to have the thing called eye. There they have it as a tool.”
Worried by the doctor’s remark, Hilda said, “I asked him if they didn’t have that at their Lekki branch and he said no.
“Now, for them to come out and say that we were the ones who asked for referrals abroad is strange. I was so shocked hearing it.
“I was like, ah, it’s as if the whole people are now working hand in hand with the government against us.
“That’s how the whole thing looks at this point. Meanwhile, it’s something the doctors said they cannot do.
“We had already paid money for them to do the surgery. It’s not as if it was examination of the eye that they were doing. The money was already paid for surgery.
“They asked us not to give the child food on the Monday that we went there before. They asked us not to give the child any food when we would be coming the next Monday for the surgery.
“That was exactly what we did. I didn’t give my child any food that morning. It was around 2 o’ clock or so that my son entered the theatre. All through that day till 2 o’ clock when he entered the theatre, he didn’t eat.
“When they even brought him out, imagine someone who was already on anaesthetic, we were asked not to give him anything yet and after 30 minutes, we should just administer water to see if his body can take it before we would gradually give him milk, after which he would start eating food.
“So, the statement of we asking them to refer us abroad, I don’t know where that one came from. When we went to the admin of Eye Foundation after they said they would refer us, they gave us some eye drops.
“When we went to the admin for the refund of what was left, they told us they would remove 30% of what we had paid since they were refunding us.
“We asked them why? On what ground? They said that happens any time a patient opts for a referral or he wants a refund of what he has paid.
“We told them we were not the one that wanted a refund. It was the hospital that told us they couldn’t do the surgery.
“We subsequently asked them to call the doctor that attended to us so he could speak with them at the admin department so that they could do a total refund without removing the 30%.
“They eventually did. They refunded the balance of everything after removing the money for the eye drops, the drugs, the cost for evaluation, the discount, among other charges they refunded us exactly what was supposed to be refunded.
They didn’t remove the 30%, because we were not the one that opted for a refund. I really felt bad reading about the allegation that we asked for referral.
Family may have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – Expert
A clinical psychologist, Mrs Chiyenre Okonkwo has described the experience of the family as a traumatic event. She said for the mother of the boy to see some flashes of the event and closes her eyes means that she is going through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The only way she can deal with it, she said, is by going through a therapy session.
Her words: “It is bad enough that the situation has not even cleared because already a son is dead and the situation cannot be reversed and the one that is alive is not even healthy and there is no solution in sight. It is like somebody living perpetually in a traumatising state, coupled with economic hardship and lack of support.
“I also want to believe that nothing has been done about the person who shot the boys or the institution that is liable. The NDLEA should have taken it upon themselves to ensure that the surviving child gets the best treatment anywhere. That is the least that they can do to console the family for taking the life of their other son.”
The implication of all this the clinical psychologist said is that they have trauma and are experiencing it as well “because each time they look at their son, the whole scenario will continue to play back and it’s like putting the couple in a perpetual state of trauma which is not good at all.
“Even if they are going through therapy now, they will also need some sort of respite for losing their child.”
Continuing, she said: “Psychological health is closely linked to physical health. If they are experiencing PTSD, and we know that when one is exposed to a stressful situation for a long time , it impacts on their physical health. There could be some complaints of physical health issues.
“When someone has hypertension, it is easily said that the person is thinking too much. For somebody to be thinking too much it means that there are certain things that are not going on well with the person at a time.
“If we apply that reasoning to the situation of this family, then you can imagine that if the man is thinking too much or the woman is thinking too much or both become too worried about what becomes the fate of their son, there could be health issues. Apart from that,the man or the woman may not be in a very good state to even concentrate on doing anything meaningful. The man’s job may suffer too. The woman may leave whatever job she is doing to take care of that child. It is a circle and every other person that is around them is affected as well. Their physical health,psychological health, financial health and occupational health can be affected particularly as there seems not to be justice in such a situation.”
