Anyone who thought that there was something remiss in the extrajudicial killing of Boko Haram captives by our security forces last August must not have been aware of the rule that hospitals demand a police report before treating gunshot victims.
This requirement issued by the Force itself flouts the very basis of the rule of law on which our constitution and judiciary are based. Although the police have always said this is not so.
The debate has been over whether it is proper to allow hospitals treat gunshot victims. Hospitals are established to treat the sick and wounded. Whether that person is an armed robber or a victim of armed robbery is irrelevant.
In any case, the question of guilt or innocence is not for the doctors and nurses to establish but for the police who are required at all times to proceed on the basis of innocent until proven guilty.
On Sunday, September 20, 2009 Bayo Ohu, an assistant political editor with The Guardian newspapers in Lagos was shot by yet unknown gunmen. According to the reports, by the time the assailants left Ohu was still breathing and was rushed to a nearby private hospital.
However, the doctors on duty demanded for a police report before they would even administer ordinary first aid treatment on him. Of course, that was impossible because the attackers had just left and the victim was bleeding badly and there was no way a police report could have been obtained under such circumstances.
By the time Ohu was rushed to a government hospital, it was too late. He was dead on arrival.
What exactly is the police report required to say? This is an armed robber leave him to die, or this is a bona fide law abiding citizen treat him before he dies? Having made this injunction, have the police stationed themselves where medical personnel can easily reach them?
Is the speed and efficiency with which they operate such that a report could even have been obtained, typed signed and certified at the time Ohu was attacked?
We are alarmed that doctors who swore to the Hippocratic Oath to save lives could turn back a victim in need assistance for any reason. Ohu is just the latest victim of a rule that does not belong in a civilised society
Therefore, assuming that a victim of a gunshot even shows up in a hospital for treatment or first aid assistance, the thing to be done is to treat such a person and report to the police. Moreover, in this age when the cell phone has made communications easy and fast, such a hospital should just put a call to the nearest police station.
A situation where a gunshot victim is left to bleed to death because there is no police report is cruel and inhuman. If it is a law it should be scrapped and if it is not, a firm order should be given to stop the practice of turning back gunshot victims from hospitals.
It is important that the inspector general of police act fast to prevent unnecessary loss of lives. We would also strongly suggest that a written statement approving the treatment of gunshot victims should be distributed widely to all registered hospitals in the country so as to constantly remind them of their duty to victims.
Finally, in 2008 a member of the national assembly Mayor Eze proposed a bill on this, asking members to enact a law allowing hospitals to treat gunshot victims. Almost a year after nothing has been heard about the bill. The time to fast track it into law is now.
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