Rights Groups Demand Full Payment of Medical Bills for Onitsha Police Shooting Victims
Hi Dear, thanks for visiting! Like our FB Page or Follow Us Twitter for Regular News Updates!
The Campaign for Democracy and Human Rights Defenders, CD/HURIDE, has called on the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, CP Nnanna Oji Ama, to release more funds to ensure full payment of the medical bills of all the wounded victims of the recent police gunshots at Onitsha Bridgehead.
 |
| Rights Groups Demand Full Payment of Medical Bills for Onitsha Police Shooting Victims |
Some police men attached to the Bridgehead Police Division had shot and wounded those they felt were carrying some bags of unregistered and counterfeit drugs and refused to submit them to the policemen for search as demanded.
Shortly after the shooting incident, CP Ama quickly intervened, visited the scene and the hospitals where the victims were hospitalised, paid the initial bills for their treatments, offered to foot their medical bills and ordered a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Few days into the investigations, the four officers who had carried out the shootings were detained at the State Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, for further interrogation.
But in a press statement issued in Onitsha, Chairman of CD, Southeast Zone and Executive Director of Human Rights Defenders (HURIDE) Dede Uzor A. Uzor commended the CP, the Army and Onitsha Police Area Commander for their timely interventions that helped to quell the looming breakdown of law and order which could have emanated from protests during the day of the incident.
He also commended the CP for offering to pay the medical bills of the victims so far and urged him to do more to save their lives as, according to him, relations of the victims may not be buoyant enough to handle their medical bills.
He, however, urged the CP to revisit the victims in the hospital to find out their health status and ensure that all of them, particularly the one who has been injured or is on the verge of amputation, are properly taken care of in terms of the full settlement of their medical bills and their full recovery.
He also called for possible provision of necessary compensation to the victims and at the same time, to make a provision for constant training and retraining of police personnel in the state on the use of firearms in line with democratic principles.
Dede Uzor also advised that the police should set up a joint anti-fake and counterfeit drugs team with the leadership of Ogbogwu Onitsha Drugs Market to have a routine meeting to avert future occurrences.
“CP should mediate into the ongoing Ogbogwu leadership crisis between the caretaker committee and its opposition, which he described as very serious. The CP should also set up a high-powered committee to resolve the crisis, which is obviously affecting the average trader and their customers at the Ogbogwu market”, said CD/HURIDE.
SHARE THIS NEWS
Post a Comment
Let know your opinion on this story