Shi’ite Protest: Senate President, IGP visit policemen in hospital

The Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan and the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu visited Policemen who sustained injury when members of the El-Zakzakky Islamic Movement of Nigeria forcefully invaded the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Senator Lawan and his team were said to have visited the injured policemen around 10pm on Tuesday.

The IGP on his part was accompanied by the Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Ibrahim Lamorde, Commissioner of Police in charge of FCT, CP Bala Ciroma and others on Wednesday to know the status of the affected officers.

The IGP who arrived the hospital premises around 12:28pm was taken round the ward to speak with each of the policemen on admission by the Trauma Surgeon, Dr. Apollo Kanati.

Those affected include; Sgt. Umar Ndabrana, DSP Samuel David, Corporal Mohammed Seriki and Corporal Joseph Abutu.

The invasion left nine Policemen injured but five are on admission at the hospital.

The Police also debunked the claim that one of the Policemen died as a result of the attack.

The IGP who also had a stop at the office of Chief Medical Director of the hospital to assure him of payment of the bills urged the doctors to give them the best treatment stating that the bill was not a problem.

Commenting on the outcome of the protest, the IGP said: “In the course of protecting our citizens and giving rooms to people to express themselves, a group of people went overboard and attacked Police officers in the course of performing their duties and you see the result; our officers have been shot.

“I have just seen them, they are carrying bullet wounds and some were attacked with clubs and stones. We showed restrain in terms of not going the same way the protesters went but it is an act that is not tolerated and it is an act we will not take again.

“The right to express yourself does not mean the right to trample on other people’s rights to the extent of causing a lot of havoc and sufferings on other people.

“We will make sure that we prosecute those people that have been arrested and those that are yet to be arrested, we will go after them and make sure that they are arrested and justice is done.

On the threat made by the group to continue their protest, the IGP said: “We are ready for them. We will not explain our strategy but we will make sure we don’t allow them disrupt the peace of the city.

“We have arrested 40 members of the El-Zakzakky Islamic Movement of Nigeria and we will make sure that those on the run are also arrested.”

Adamu also noted that the policemen are in stable condition.

He said: “All the policemen you have seen here, the doctor has assured us that they are in stable condition and they are doing well. As you know, police as an institution will take care of their bills, welfare and insurance. So, for now everything is in order and the rest of the actions are left to us in terms of how to handle the El-Zakzakky Islamic Movement of Nigeria.”

On his part, the CMD, Dr. JAF Momoh said the hospital staff commenced treatment of the officers without asking for money.

He said: “We want to ensure that Nigerians get the best of treatment once they are brought here before discussing bill. For all emergencies, that is how it is no matter the time. Before we start discussing bills, it may be 24 hours more because the priority is to save life and once we have saved and stabilized the life, we can then ask for their relation, where they come from and ask who will be responsible for their bills while we continue the treatment and management.

“Even this morning, we have discussed the only case that needs further management and my deputy talked about how we are going to get the implants to fix the problem that he had around his mouth. We know that this was an emergency.

He continued: “Several people have come and the Senate President with his team were at the hospital around 10 pm on Tuesday to check the patients.

“We want to commiserate with you on this because we know they were on duty when this happened and it is the responsibility of government to take care of them.

“We want you to be rest assured that they will be given best of treatment by a team of consultant across various departments that need to see them. They are being seen already accordingly. What we want to say is that we will coordinate with our colleagues in terms of bills that need to be paid later. We will not delay any treatment.”

The Nation