House Urges Police, NMA to Comply with Gunshot Victims Act

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House Representatives has urged the police and the Nigerian Medical Association to follow through on this commitment to strict compliance with the Gunshot Victims Act and prosecute offenders.

It also called on the media and relevant agencies of the executive arm of government to publicise the act.

In a statement jointly signed by the spokesman for the House of Representatives, Akin Rotimi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Police Affairs, Makki Abubakar Yalleman, the House viewed this development from the police as timely and commendable considering rising complaints by Nigerians about hospitals that decline prompt treatment of victims of gunshot incidents, robberies, and even vehicular accidents who do not present police reports.

“The IG’s action offers relief that value is placed on the life of every citizen and restores confidence in our hospitals. The House of Representatives welcomes the recent publicised signal from the Office of the Inspector-General of Police to various formations and commands of the Nigeria Police Force on the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017,” said the statement.

It added:”The internal memo dated October 25, 2023, directed the Officers to comply with the law and enforce its provision without hesitation. Worthy of note in the memo signed by the IGP’s Principal Staff Officer, CSP Olatunji Disu, is the directive to the various police formations and commands to ‘make the law a subject of lecture’ in order to cure the ignorance in many hospitals about the position of the law, which unfortunately has led to the loss of many lives.”

The legislators noted that issues “around compliance” with the act “recently became a subject of public discourse following the death of Ms. Greatness Olorunfemi, a brilliant Nigerian who was a victim of a one-chance robbery in Abuja on Tuesday, September 26, 2023.”

Following her death, a petition was laid before the House on October 10 by Chris Nkwonta, representing the Ukwa East-West federal constituency of Abia. The matter is now before the House Committee on Public Petitions.

“To be clear, the House maintains that the professional calling of physicians, nurses, and emergency care personnel, as well as dictates of extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, prescribes that every Nigerian brought to any hospital deserves the duty of care, stabilisation, and dignity, regardless of the condition they are brought in, or the apparent cause of the distress or trauma,” the lawmakers stressed in the statement.