Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu have visited policemen who were injured the invasion of the National Assembly by members of Ibrahim El-Zakzakky’s Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) on Tuesday.
Lawan and his team reportedly visited the injured policemen around 10 p.m on Tuesday.
The IGP was accompanied yesterday by Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Ibrahim Lamorde, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Commissioner Bala Ciroma and others to monitor the health of the affected officers.
The IGP, who arrived the hospital premises around 12:28 p.m, was taken round the ward to speak with each of the policemen on admission by the Trauma Surgeon, Dr. Apollo Kanati.
Those affected include Umar Ndabrana, a Sergeant; Samuel David, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), as well as Mohammed Seriki and Joseph Abutu, both Corporals.
The invasion left nine policemen injured but five are on admission at the hospital.
The police also debunked the claim that one of the policemen died during the attack.
IGP Adamu, who also had a stop at the office of Chief Medical Director (CMD) to assure him of payment of the bills, urged the doctors to give the patients the best treatment.
On the outcome of the protest, Adamu said: “In the course of protecting our citizens and giving rooms to people to express themselves, a group of people went overboard and attacked police officers …performing their duties, and you see the result. Our officers have been shot.
“I have just seen them. They are carrying bullet wounds, and some were attacked with clubs and stones. We showed restraint in terms of not going the same way the protesters went, but it is an act that is not tolerated. It is an act we will not take again.
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“The right to express yourself does not mean the right to trample on other people’s rights to the extent of causing a lot of havoc and sufferings on other people.
“We will make sure that we prosecute those people who have been arrested and those who are yet to be arrested. We will go after them and make sure that they are arrested and justice is done.”
On the threat by the group to continue their protest, Adamu said: “We are ready for them. We will not explain our strategy, but we will make sure we don’t allow them to disrupt the peace of the city.
“We have arrested 40 members of El-Zakzakky’s Islamic Movement of Nigeria and we will make sure that those on the run are also arrested.”
The IGP said the policemen were in stable condition.
He added: “All the policemen you have seen here, the doctor has assured us, are in stable condition and they are doing well. As you know, the police as an institution will take care of their bills, welfare and insurance. So, for now, everything is in order. The rest of the actions are left to us in terms of how to handle El-Zakzakky’s Islamic Movement of Nigeria.”
The CMD Dr J. A. F. Momoh said the hospital workers started treatment of the injured officers without asking for money.
He said: “We want to ensure that Nigerians get the best of treatment, once they are brought here, before discussing the bill. For all emergencies, that is how it is, no matter the time.
“Before we start discussing bills, it may be 24 hours more because the priority is to save life. Once we have saved and stabilised the life, we can then ask for their relations, where they come from and ask who will be responsible for their bills, while we continue the treatment and management.
“Even this morning, we discussed the only case that needs further management. My deputy talked about how we are going to get the implants to fix the problem that he had around his mouth. We know that this was an emergency.”
He added: “Several people have come. The Senate President with his team were at the hospital around 10 p.m on Tuesday to check the patients.
“We want to commiserate with you on this because we know they were on duty when this happened. It is the responsibility of government to take care of them.
“We want you to rest assured that they will be given best of treatment by a team of consultants across various departments that need to see them. They are being seen accordingly. What we want to say is that we will coordinate our colleagues in terms of bills that need to be paid later. We will not delay any treatment.”
