- It is a heartbreak that, Angela Igwetu, a youth corps member, is shot dead hours to last parade
In a country where many wrongdoings go unchallenged, and as a result keep recurring, it is gratifying to see an exception to this unusual rule. A youth corps member, Angela Igwetu, was allegedly killed by a police man when returning from an outing with her friends at about 3.00 a.m. on July 5. According to a newspaper report, she was rushed to the General Hospital, Garki, Abuja, where she died, allegedly due to lateness of the hospital to attend to her, and also because she did not get adequate medical attention.
Rather than regarding her case as an emergency, the hospital reportedly insisted that a deposit of N50,000 must be made by her relatives before she could be attended to. Not even the N20,000 deposit by the Divisional Police Officer of the Central Area Police Division, Abuja, with a promise to personally ensure the payment of the balance could sway the hospital to attend to her.
It is on these grounds that the late youth corps member’s family petitioned the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, requesting that the police go after the hospital authorities, especially with the autopsy report allegedly faulting the hospital’s claims that she was promptly attended to and that she had adequate medical attention.
This is a welcome development. It is high time Nigerians began to ask questions over situations such as this. It is sad that many Nigerians have been needlessly wasted at police checkpoints across the country. It is sadder still that a young Nigerian who was on national service could be so brutally killed like a common criminal, just a few hours to her passing-out parade. That a public hospital would even fail or refuse to attend to her because she was a gunshot victim, despite the signing into law by President Muhammadu Buhari of the Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Act on December 20, last year, is condemnable.
As we usually say in the circumstance, nothing can be done to bring the victim back to life. But we can send the right signal that the country would not tolerate any such wanton killing on the part of security agencies, just as hospitals that refuse to attend to such victims promptly and adequately should also have the law to contend with. This is about the only way we can ensure the sanctity of life.
The family’s lawyer has made sufficient case to warrant a consideration of the petition. Is it true that the victim was rushed to the hospital within five minutes as claimed in the petition by the family’s counsel, Simphil Associates? Is it true that the hospital insisted that a deposit of N50,000 must be made before commencing treatment? Is it true that it rejected the down payment of N20,000 made by the Divisional Police Officer of the Central Area Police Division? Did the hospital refuse to accept electronic transfer of the money? Is it also true, as the victim’s sister, Chinenye, claimed that the pipes inserted into her sister in the hospital broke her rib cage?
These are pertinent questions bordering on insensitivity and incompetence that characterise some of our hospitals, public or private.
We urge the police to deal with its own errant officer in the matter not only internally but also ensure that he is prosecuted. In the same vein, the police authorities must treat the petition by the family’s solicitors with utmost urgency. Indeed, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) should also show sufficient interest in the matter.
We can’t be judgmental at this stage. But everything must be done to get to the root of the matter on all fronts with a view to punishing all the guilty parties whose actions or inactions led to the death of Angela Igwetu. We should not tolerate such level of insensitivity or incompetence (or both) from either the police or the hospital.
