The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL) has decried the recent killing of two lawyers by unknown assailants.
The Chairman of NBA-SPIDEL, Dr Onyekachi Ubani, in a statement, also vowed to commence legal actions against the hospitals which rejected the lawyers rushed to their facility while still alive, to serve as an example.
Stephen Enyinnaya Eke of Nyanya-Karu NBA Branch, FCT, and Nathan Akatakpo of Port Harcourt NBA, Rivers State, were assassinated in separate incidents last week.
According to Ubani, Eke, who was shot in the presence of some of his family members, was said to have been rushed to several hospitals in Abuja while still breathing but was rejected by the medical officers on duty on account of his carrying bullet wounds.
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“We are aware that Nigeria has an Act (Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017) that outlaws such evil practice of rejecting patients who are shot by any person including criminals in Nigeria,” he said.
“This rejection to treat is not only criminal and callous but a clear breach of the ethics of the medical profession that mandates the medical personnel to save lives first irrespective of the condition of the patient with gun shot wounds.”
The association called on security agencies to track and bring the killers to justice, while urging the federal government to ensure justice for the deceased lawyers and many lawyers killed or kidnapped in the past three years.
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