NHRC panel summons hospital CMD over whereabouts of petitioner’s husband’s corpse

The independent investigative panel on violations of rights by the defunct SARS and other police units sitting in Abuja on Monday summoned the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Specialist Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, to appear before it with the hospital’s mortuary entry diary for November 20 to 22, 2012.

The chairman of the panel, set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd), gave the order at the hearing of a petition filed by one Mercy Patrick in which she alleged extra-judicial killing of her husband, Patrick Oche.

The summons, according to the retired Justice of the Supreme Court, was to enable the panel to ascertain the whereabouts of the remains of the late Oche.

The panel further issued a witness summon on a lawyer, Maxwell Opara, to appear before it having been mentioned by the petitioner as one of the lawyers that accompanied her to seek for her husband’s remains.

At Monday’s resumed hearing of the petition, Mrs Patrick told the panel that her husband had on November 20, 2012, told her that he was going to his village for a marriage ceremony and would call her late.

According to her, she later received a call through which she was informed that her husband was murdered in his car at Masaka by some people.

The petitioner told the panel that her husband’s remains were deposited at the Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital, adding that she was, however, not allowed to see the body when she went there.

She informed that she took the matter to a popular radio programme, Berekette Family on Abuja-based radio station, Human Rights Radio, with a view to make a complaint.

She added that the presenter of the programme, Ordinary Ahmed Isah asked Barristers Echefule, Anthony Agbolanhor and Maxwell Opara to accompany her to the hospital for them to ascertain the veracity of her claim.

Mrs Patrick told the panel that when they got there, they discovered the name of her husband in the hospital entry list of November 20 to 22, 2012, but, however, told that his body was not in the hospital.

While saying that she and her children have been suffering since the death of her husband, Patrick told the panel that the late Oche’s car was parked at the SARS’ office at Garki, Abuja, adding that she did not have access to it.

Meanwhile, the 11-man panel had adjourned further hearing in the petition to December 2, 2021.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.