Nigeria: NGO seeks treatment of gunshot victims without police report

NGO has urged adoption of the Compulsory Treatment and Care for the Victims of Gunshots Act passed in 2017.

The founder of the Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVIFON), Gloria Egbuji, has urged the various states in Nigeria to work for the adoption of the Compulsory Treatment and Care for the Victims of Gunshots Act passed in 2017.

Egbuji made this request while speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.

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Under this request, the Non-Governmental Organization has urged medical doctors across the country to admit victims of accidents and gunshots without asking for a police report.

According to Gloria Egbuji, only two states in Nigeria, Lagos and Anambra, out of the total 36, have adopted this law into their states.

Further, During the press conference, Egbuji stated that since 1998, the organisation has been leading the “cause of gunshots and accidents victims by urging medical staff in private and public hospitals to admit the victims for treatment before asking them to produce a police report.”

According to the sources, it is now an offence for medical facilities to deny any gunshot or accident victim the right to be treated before submitting a police report.

Egbujui also stated that it is an offence for the police to arrest or harass medical staff for treating a gunshot or accident victim who does not have a police report at the time of admission.

In the same breath, the lawyer advocating the cause of the gunshot victims stated that even though there is already a law on the compulsory treatment of gunshot and accident victims, without submitting a police report as a condition before treatment, some Nigerian hospitals have continued to demand a police report, thus putting the lives of such victims at risk.”

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They also stated that Nigeria had lost the lives of several people due to the careless refusal of the hospitals to accept the victims for treatment.

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