Imperative of treating gunshot victims without police report

Notwithstanding the federal law mandating hospitals to treat victims of gunshots with or without police treatment in order to save precious and innocent lives, it has become necessary for the government to embrace sterner measures to make this effective, following various incidences of non-compliance that have resulted in untimely deaths. The rising wave of new-age crimes—“one-chance” robbery, ritual killing, kidnapping, rape, and other crimes across the country—is a cause for great concern. Not infrequently, daredevil armed robbers, ritual killers, “one-chance” killers, kidnappers, and other criminals are on the prowl across the country to devour their victims. A young lady goes to visit her boyfriend in the morning, but by evening her boyfriend has butchered her to death and used some of her organs for money-making rituals. A man is spotted at a meeting in the morning, chatting away boisterously, but in the evening, he is kidnapped by kidnappers lurking in the corner.

The most unsuspecting category of robbers snuffing life off many vehicle passengers are popularly known as “one-chance” robbers. These robbers pose as commercial passengers offering unsuspecting passengers vacant seats in a moving commercial vehicle as a ploy to rob them of their belongings and thereafter throw them out of the moving vehicle. Nigerian residents in Abuja, the nation’s capital, are once again living in the shadow of death from “one-chance” robbers. For example, on the 26th of September 2023, Greatness Olorunfemi, a community developer and member of the Young African Leaders Initiative Network (YALI), became a victim of notorious ‘one-chance’ operators in Abuja. She was said to have been pushed out of a fast-moving commercial vehicle along the Maitama-Kubwa highway in Abuja by notorious ‘one-chance’ operators who had reportedly robbed her of her money and personal belongings.

The most painful aspect is that Olorunfemi, who was after the incident, rushed to Maitama General Hospital in Abuja for urgent medical treatment, died at the hospital after allegedly being denied treatment for not providing a police report. Olorunfemi’s death has elicited no small commentaries on social media. This has ostensibly led to the setting up of a Panel of Investigation to carry out a painstaking investigation and interaction to unravel the circumstances leading to her death and to proffer ways forward. Besides, the Senate has waded into the matter and even demanded a thorough investigation into the death of Olorunfemi.

Nothing should be left unturned in unraveling the circumstances leading to Olorunfemi’s death and apprehending and prosecuting all those who had a hand in her death. Human life is sacred. The right to life is guaranteed in our Constitution. Therefore, the attitude of Nigerian hospitals should be to save human life, not to refuse medical treatment for victims of accidents, rape, robbery, gunshot, and other crimes. The case of Bayo Ohu, a former staff of The Guardian Newspaper, is unforgettable. Ohu was attacked by alleged hired assassins in his Lagos home in 2009. But he didn’t die immediately. He died later after the hospital refused to treat him. Another pathetic case was the then chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, who was shot in his house. A nearby hospital refused to treat him, and he died as he was being taken to a public hospital. The list is endless, making life in the country to be replete with needless cases of people who died in hospitals after the hospitals rejected their medical treatment. Oftentimes, relatives of accident victims in Nigeria rush to the nearest hospital to beg medical doctors to treat their victims because they are not armed robbers, but to no avail. Instead, the medical doctors refer them to public hospitals that are not nearby, and in the process of taking the victims to the public hospitals, they die.

The deduction from all this is that life has become depressingly cheap in Nigeria, and the value of human life is low. The authorities must step in immediately and bring all those fingered in the death of Olorunfemi and other victims of accidents, rape, robbery, gunshot, and other crimes to justice. In order to checkmate the pains and perhaps eventual deaths of accident victims resulting from the lack of police reports, the government has enacted the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017. The Act provides for the compulsory treatment and care for victims of gunshots by hospitals in Nigeria. The act further imposes the responsibility on every citizen to offer any assistance to gunshot victims by taking them to the nearest hospital for treatment.

Specifically, section 1 of the Act states that: ‘Every hospital is to receive and treat victims of gunshot wounds with or without police clearance and/or payment of an initial deposit, but they are duty-bound to report to the nearest police station within two hours of commencing treatment on the victim.’ In addition, section 20 of the National Health Act 2014 partly states: ‘A healthcare provider, health worker, or health establishment shall not refuse a person emergency medical treatment for any reason.’ An offender is liable to a fine of N100,000, a jail term of six months, or both upon conviction. Besides, successive Inspectors General of Police in Nigeria have urged medical doctors to treat accident and gunshot victims without seeking police clearance.

On the whole, Olorunfemi’s death and the deaths of other victims of “one-chance” robbery, accidents, rape, robbery, gunshots, and other crimes are a wake-up call to the police and our security agents to devise more effective and efficient crime-combating strategies. This involves setting clear priorities, communicating effectively with the public, and taking decisive action to address the threat to security. The government can enhance its intelligence-gathering capabilities to better monitor the activities of criminals. Public awareness campaigns and workshops should be organised to educate people on the risks of “one-chance” robberies and how to recognise and avoid potential threats.

There is a need to encourage police officers to engage with the community through engagement with community vigilantes and neighbourhood watch to build trust and gather intelligence about criminal activities in the community. The government should install and maintain a network of surveillance cameras in public transportation areas and hotspots for “one-chance” robberies to monitor activities and identify potential criminals in different areas. The National Health Act 2014 and the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017 should be enforced. Our problem in Nigeria is not lack of laws but enforcement of the laws.

Finally, political leaders, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders should work together to build consensus among themselves on the most effective ways of dislodging criminal activities. This can be done through dialogue, consultations, and other forms of engagement.