WHEN WILL NIGERIANS HAVE ACCESS TO QUALITY MEDICARE?

LATE UGOCHUKWU NWOSU

Many governors across the country have on several occasion, claimed to have rehabilitated, resuscitated and built, community hospitals in their various states at huge costs to tax-payers.

Sadly enough, these hospitals which are said to be for the common man, are hardly able to provide basic medical needs in case of emergencies for patients and this has resulted in many deaths due to a lack of prompt medical care and attention.

Some have no personnel, no drugs and worse still, very inhabitable.

This brings to the fore, calls for concerns as many a life would have been saved.

Take the case of a former candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Abia-North constituency in the 2015 general elections, Ugochukwu Nwosu, who was reportedly murdered at his house on Shakiru Oleko Street, Agric, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.

According to available reports monitored from the Punch newspapers online, the late Nwosu was reported to have been stabbed to death by a suspected robber, while engaged in a scuffle.

The late Ugochukwu, it was gathered, had despite his injuries overpowered and apprehended the suspected robber before succumbing to death after he was rushed to a private hospital in the area.

Aged 46, Ugochukwu, a first class graduate of Chemical Engineering of the University of Port-Harcourt, with a Masters degree in Chemical Analysis from Harvard University, was the Chief Executive Officer of Idife Nwosu Investment Limited and Business Info Base Business Directory.

Narrating what happened on the night of the robbery, his driver, Obinna, said he and his boss were awakened by the sound of falling crates around 3am on Thursday, December 1.

“The sound also woke me up and I followed him. Shortly after, I heard sounds of two people struggling. I quickly ran out and behold, I saw my boss in a brawl with a man; he (Ugochukwu) was bleeding in his right hand.

“I joined him and we overpowered, disarmed and tied up the intruder.

“Afterwards, I noticed that my boss was about passing out. I had thought he was bleeding only from his right hand, but I didn’t know that the intruder also stabbed him below the abdomen. I immediately drove him to a private hospital; but he had lost a lot of blood. He was later confirmed dead by a doctor.”

The suspect, Dolapo Olajiru, was handed over to policemen from the Owotu division, who transferred him to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department in Yaba.

He confessed to stabbing the late politician while they struggled. Olajiru also said he was not a hired assassin but only a criminal trying to “survive the hard times.”

The deceased’s elder brother, Innocent Nwosu, described the late politician as a gentleman, saying he was shocked at the news of his death.

“We were preparing for our father’s 83rd birthday slated for December 29, 2016. He was the one piloting the whole arrangement and now he is no more.

“I really pray that our father survives the shock. This is a terrible loss to my family and the entire Abia State,” he added.