The pregnant woman, who was shot recently by an operative of the Nigeria Customs Service at Iyana-Iyesi in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Mrs. Bukola Olugunna, has accused the NCS of lying to Nigerians about the extent of the injury inflicted on her during the incident.
Olugunna said that contrary to claims by the NCS that the stray bullet fired by its operative merely “brushed” her, she was actually hit by the bullet, which lodged under her left armpit but was later extracted by doctors at the hospital she was rushed to for treatment.
The mother of one, who looked weak and tired, told our correspondent, who visited her home at Iyana-Iyesi, that she escaped death by the whiskers as the fired stray bullet did more damage to her body than what the Customs fed Nigerians about the incident.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Customs Area Command, Abdullahi Maiwada, had said that the woman was only “brushed” and not hit by the stray bullet, when NCS operatives tried to track a suspected smuggled vehicle along the area.
But Olugunna claimed that she spent five days on admission at the hospital after the bullet was extracted from under her left armpit.
“I was going to the office and I wanted to cross to the other side to take a bike going to the office when the incident happened. They (doctors) removed the bullet and we have it. They removed the bullet from under my armpit, and I spent five days in the hospital,” she claimed.
The pregnant woman’s husband, Mr. Kolade Olugunna, however, narrated to our correspondent how some Customs officers at the scene of the incident attempted to bribe commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada, to abandon his wife to bleed to death.
Olugunna, a civil engineer, told our correspondent that his wife, who is a staff of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, would have been abandoned by the Customs officers in the pool of blood to die, but for the Okada men, who refused to be bribed and insisted that she must be taken to the hospital for treatment.
The victim’s husband also backed his wife’s claim, insisting that she was hit and not brushed by the stray bullet.
He stressed that without the help of the Okada riders, his wife would have died on the spot after being shot on her way to work on the fateful day.
I was going to the office and I wanted to cross to the other side to take a bike when the incident happened. They (doctors) removed the bullet and we have it. They removed the bullet from under my armpit, and I spent five days in the hospital
He said, “What the bike men said was that the Customs people wanted to bribe them and run away. But they refused because they know me very well. So, they arrested them and transferred them to the Obasanjo Police Station before they transferred the case to the Sango Area Command, where they were detained. When their Command heard about it, they quickly came over to the spot and they transferred her to Mercyland hospital at Iyana Iyesi.
“It is a lie! The bullet did not just brush my wife; it hit her because when I heard about the incident, I had to rush to the hospital to see her. The bullet scar is still there because the bullet hit her very close to her left armpit and got out through the back.
“The gun shot came in through the left hand and came out at the back, but the bullet was removed. Thank God it did not affect the bone. They have already stitched the wound, both front and back, and nothing happened to the pregnancy. We just have to
thank God.”
