There are clear indications that police officers are working to undermine investigation into the case of Alexandra Ossai, the woman who was allegedly kicked in the stomach by her Lebanese manager, Kaveh Noine, causing her to lose her seven months old pregnancy.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited the Gracious Mercy Hospital in the Fagba area of Lagos, where she is currently receiving treatment, Saturday afternoon, plain cloth policemen were seen prompting the tired-looking and agonising woman to make statements, ignoring the concern from her lawyer that she is not in the right state of mind and too physically battered to talk.
It was observed that the police investigation seems uncoordinated with detectives from the Area F command and the Police X-squad working at cross-purposes. Mrs. Ossai’s relatives are suspicious that investigators from X-squad are trying very hard to exonerate Mr. Noine and his company, Toppan.
In fact, the original officer from Area F, simple identified as Jimi, has been detained for three days after officials of Toppan accused him of collecting bribe from Mrs. Ossai to portray the case in her favour.
He tearfully denied ever collecting money from Mrs Ossai.
“I did not know the complainant nor the suspect. All I did was to state the fact of the case. These people are just using their influence to punish me for saying the truth,” he was overheard telling a relative of Mrs Ossai in Yoruba.
The frail-looking Mrs Ossai, who is in need of better medical attention claimed she was ordered to report at the Glorious Mercy Hospital by the policemen to write a statement who ignored all her pleas of being too weak to do so. She also claimed that officers were prompting her on what to write in her statement.
“I don’t know if that was right but they were telling me what to write. They also ordered me to disclose my mother’s address but I refused to do so for my safety,” she said.
she also fears the police might intimidate the doctor to issue a report that does not state the true details of the injuries she suffered.
Her fears may not be unfounded.
Two weeks after the emergency surgery, the hospital is yet to issue a medical report. Shehu Abdulkareem, the doctor of the clinic said the medical report would be ready when the surgeon who conducted the emergency surgery returned from his trip before the end of the year.
“With what I’ve seen so far, I’m afraid that the investigation might be jeopardised. In this country you don’t trust the police. If care is not taken all the evidences might be swept under the carpet. It is glaring that the medical doctor is afraid to say something about the medical report, which is a key evidence for us to pursue this case,” Erhuen said.
Lagos police spokesperson, Ngozi Braid, denied the police was plotting to jeorpadize the case..She says
“The police will never leave any stone unturned in making sure that justice is achieved,The Lebanese has been arrested since Friday and is still in police custody. Meanwhile, investigations are still ongoing.”
Throughout the encounter with the police at the hospital, Mrs Ossai was in immense pain. She talked in whispers with a permanent grimace plastered on her face as she tried to endure the pangs of pains biting from the suture at her torso. At about 2.20 p.m., she complained of hunger stating she had not eaten all day.
She also appears to be in need of better medical attention as the Grace hospital is ill equipped to care for her. After waiting for more than an hour for her prescription all she got were some yellow paracetamol capsules.
“I have been buying my medicine myself since after the surgery, I need help and nobody seems to care about me.”
Frustrated at the questioning from the investigating officer, she broke down after a while.
“I leave everything to God if the Police choose not to do the right thing. But as long as God lives, Kaveh’s offspring will end up in canals just like my son,” she said, sobbing...
SOURCE-SDK
No comments:
Post a Comment