The House of Representatives have set in motion, moves to ensure that hospitals in the country treat gunshot victims without police report.

 

The piece of legislation will still have to pass through some legislative processes in conjunction with the Senate, before it will be sent to the presidency by the National Assembly clerk for presidential assent.

 

To that effect, the House has adopted a report on the Bill for and Act to Make Provisions for the Compulsory Treatment and Care for the Victims for Gunshot and Other Matters Connected Therewith, sponsored by the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nkiruka Onyejeocha.

 

The House adopted the report at the Committee of the Whole, headed by the deputy speaker, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha.

 

According to the sponsor of the bill, “the issue of conditional access to medication by victims of gunshot in Nigeria has generated arguments among scholars, policy makers, medical practitioners and the general public”.

 

She added that the misinterpretation of the provision of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act, Cap 398 of 1984, has been responsible for the refusal of medical practitioners to attend to gunshot victims which often leads to loss of innocent lives.

 

She noted that the bill, if passed into law, will among other things, guarantee unrestricted access to medical services by victims of gunshots; as well as further strengthen legal provisions and guarantee peoples’ fundamental rights to life and dignity of their persons.

 

She maintained that, “despite the Act providing that, it shall be the duty of any person, hospital or clinic that admits, treats or administers drug to any person suspected of having bullet wounds to immediately report the matter to the police. Medical institutions in Nigeria have severally refused to attend to victims of gunshot requesting such victims to produce police report”.

 

“The refusal of hospitals and other medical facilities to attend to gunshot victims amounts to a negation of the fundamental human rights of those victims to life as enshrined in the relevant sections of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, stated.