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Distraught mother cries out to Sanwo-Olu over son’s missing intestine after surgery
Abiodun Deborah, is holding the authorities of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH responsible for the alleged disappearance of the small intestine of her 12-year-old son, Adebola Akin-Bright, while receiving treatment at the hospital.
The distraught mother, has therefore petitioned Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to intervene in the matter by ordering a thorough investigation after surgeons at LASUTH informed her about the disappearance of the vital organ after a corrective surgery performed on the boy on July 14, 2023.
Abiodun, who said his boy was referred to LASUTH from a private hospital, Obitoks Medical Centre situated at Ileepo in the Alimosho Local Government area of the state on June 17 following a complication from surgery to correct intestinal obstruction,said: “Sometime in February this year, my boy started vomiting and stooling and the hospital we took him to suspected typhoid and he was treated but when his condition didn’t improve after about five days, we moved him to another hospital, Obitoks Medical Centre, where it was discovered that he had ruptured appendix which would require surgery.
“He was out of the hospital after about two weeks looking so healthy again. He had even resumed school, doing well until June when he complained of pain in the stomach. We went back to the hospital where it was discovered that he had intestinal obstruction and he underwent another surgery.
“There appeared a complication as the boy was still draining bilious fluid more than seven days after the surgery, the CMD at Obitoks, Dr Abayomi Baiyewu then said the boy would require another surgery and according to him he had already secured the services of a Professor from a teaching hospital to be part of the operation. But we declined and urged him to refer us to LASUTH where we believed more robust care would be given to our child.
“We conducted a series of tests when we got to LASUTH, and the doctors there said the boy might not need to go through another surgery as the site where the bilious fluid was draining from could close up through conservative means but if not he would be operated upon. They asked us to buy different kinds of drugs, running many other tests until one Wednesday, about 25 days after we got to the hospital we noticed something like a burst from the site of an opening in his tummy and they decided that surgery would be conducted on him.”
She further narrated how the Consultant handling his son’s case told her after the mystery, adding that when they opened up the boy, they found no small intestine in him and they could not guarantee that he would survive another five days.
Stating that the implication of the development was that the boy could no longer absolve nutrients from the food he consumes and may rely on total parenteral nutrition which would be given intravenously for the rest of his life, she added: “I was dumbfounded, it was like my whole life was shattered because it was a story that could be told in Nollywood.
“Where could a 26-feet long small intestine have gone to? We immediately contacted the surgeon who handled the first two surgeries and he wondered why LASUTH would claim they could not find bowel in the boy after spending 27 days with them. He insisted that he would never have referred us to the government hospital in such a condition and explicitly stated what he had done in his referral letter.
“The results of the test we ran when we got to LASUTH never indicated that such thing happened but they are insisting they didn’t find intestine in my boy. We are confused and we are begging the Lagos State government to unravel the puzzle. Since this incident, I have been buying total parenteral nutrition which costs about N65,000 and he takes two bags in three days, where would we be able to afford N110,000 every two days? From what we heard, except the boy undergoes an intestinal transplant, he may rely on TPN for life which could also damage his liver.
“The intestinal transplant is not only extremely expensive, it is not done anywhere in Africa according to the information we got. I am begging the Governor to save my son and also unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of his intestine for the sake of justice.”
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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