New bill authorises hospitals to treat gunshot victims without Police report

yinka ogunlami

December 31, 2017 3:50 AM

Buhari signed a new bill allowing hospitals to now treat gunshot victims without first demanding from them Police report.

President Muhammadu Buhari has legalized a new bill now allowing hospitals and medical personnel treat gunshot victims without first demanding a Police report.

This was to ensure that timely and optimal healthcare is received by every inhabitant of the country, who by any chance may become a victim of a gunshot.

As quoted by The Nation, the Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang said gunshot victims shall no longer be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment by any authority, especially the Police.

He was also quoted to have said that under the new Gunshot Act, any individual with gunshot shall be received for immediate and adequate treatment by any hospital in Nigeria.

These quotations are however the stipulations of the act.

This act which was newly signed into law on Friday, December 29, 2017, is titled Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017.

The President also signed 5 other bills into law.

They include: Anti-Torture Act 2017; Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment) Amendment Act, 2017; the federal Capital Territory Water Board (Establishment) Act, 2017; the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (Establishment) Act, 2017; The Federal Capital Appropriation Act, 2017.

These six acts have thus come into effect as laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Article by Muhammad Adenowo

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