The Guardian Bayo Ohu’s murder, others open new advocacy for gunshot victims

Life is sacrosanct, and any life carelessly lost in the process of subjecting gunshot and accident victims to the rigours of police report like in the case of former editorial staff of The Guardian newspaper, Mr. Bayo Ohu, would remain a burden the nation must carry.

The Executive Director, Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVIFON), Mrs. Gloria Egbuji, stated this at a press briefing on the Compulsory Treatment of Gunshot and Accident Victims Law, in Lagos, yesterday.

She told The Guardian that CRIVIFON is planning to establish a foundation for gunshot and accident victims in memory of Ohu.

CRIVIFON Media Consultant, Frank Oshanugor, at the briefing, urged the media to help sensitise the masses, especially the rural dwellers, on the legislation, as “anybody can be a victim.”

The Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots and Accidents Bill was passed by the National Assembly in 2017 and signed into law in January 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Other cases cited alongside that of Ohu include Ebenezer Ayeni, a final year student of Ibadan Polytechnic, and Odiri Onosigho, a Lagos-based accountant. The above-mentioned victims died after they were rejected by hospitals for lack of police report.

According to Egbuji, over the years, CRIVIFON, in collaboration with some concerned Nigerians, has taken up the advocacy to put a law in place to make it an offence for medical facilities to reject gunshot and accident victims.

While the civil aspect of the law has progressed, the criminal aspect is stalled, she stated, urging other states to toe the path of Rivers and Lagos states to domesticate the legislation.

The Guardian gathered that health facilities neglect gunshot or accident victims because some patients, after treatment, would not pay. Another reason is the fear of treating criminals, which might pit the medics with the law.

Therfore, the foundation urged the police and health facilities to devise other means of communicating, rather than subjecting critical case patients to the rigours of making statements at the police station.

Participants at the briefing suggested that the advocacy should be taken to the government to make emergency (medical) centres available and accessible to every community to reduce bureaucracy in treating gunshot and accident victims.

Explaining that the law says “treat and report,” Egbuji noted that there is a fund in Lagos for indigent victims, who cannot pay their bills after treatment.