A bill seeking to jail medical practitioners who let victims of gunshot wounds die for lack of a police report has passed the second reading in the senate.
The bill is sponsored by Osita Izunaso (PDP Imo State) and the major concern is to save lives lost daily to a directive that victims of accidents and gunshots must produce police reports before they are even given first aid treatment in clinics.
“In a country where there are increasing cases of armed robbery and corresponding increases in the number of Nigerians shot on a daily basis, this bill could not have come at better time than now,” Mr. Izunaso said in his lead debate.
The bill seeks to empower medical practitioners to treat gunshots and accident victims first and then intimate the police of the presence of such victims.
“This bill also seeks to prevent the police from removing any victim of gunshot from any hospital without certifying the person fit by a health practitioner or hounding health practitioners who treat gunshot victims. The bill has penal sections with varying degrees of jail terms for offenders.” Mr. Izunaso added.
While arguing for the bill, Mr. Izunaso recounted various sad experiences, from that of Bayo Ohu, The Guardian journalist who was shot dead on September 20, to other Nigerians who had no recognition, where Nigerians were left to die in a pool of their blood in hospitals because there was no police report.
“It is illegal for the police to insist on police report before a medical practitioner treats a victim of gunshot,” Mr. Izunaso said. “The refusal to treat victims of gunshot or forceful withdrawal of gunshot victims from where he is receiving treatment runs contrary to the spirit and intentions of section 33 (1) and section 34 (1a) of the 1999 constitution.
"These provisions have guaranteed Nigerians the right to life and dignity of human persons including armed robbers. Thus even where the victim of a gunshot is an armed robber, he still has the right to life and must not die.”
Illegal police directive
Tawar Umbi Wada (PDP Gombe State) said there is no law empowering the police to stop the treatment of gunshot victims without a police report.
He explained that what started as a crime reduction strategy by the police was later misconstrued by both police officers and medical practitioners. He said that the real issue is, perhaps, who takes responsibility for the cost of the treatment of such victims.
In her view, Chris Anyanwu (PDP Imo State) said most deaths due to gunshots and other accident victims are due to the “callousness” of most medical practitioners.
She recounted an experience in Maitama General Hospital, Abuja where a young doctor turned down all pleas from her and other sympathisers and watched another young man die of accident wounds.
“Such acts of callousness should be severely punished.” She said.
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