From: Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
A victim of police stray bullet in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Mr. Abayomi Olaitan, who was in need of £10,000 for medical attention in the United Kingdom was, on Wednesday, presented with a cheque of N450,000 by the state’s chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
The cheque was presented to him by the NUT state chairman, Mr. Oluniyi Akano, at the Teachers’ House, Oluyole Estate, Moshood Abiola Way, Ibadan. The presentation was witnessed by the chairman of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Mr. Waheed Olojede, who is the state secretary of NUT.
Olaitan, a teacher at CAC Primarh School I, Irefin, Ibadan, fell victim of police stray bullet on December 26, 2016, when he was driving his car from Agodi Gate in Ibadan towards the popular Oje Market. A stray bullet was said to have hit him when two police van tried to arrest an articulated lorry that initially refused to stop for the policemen.
Daily Sun gathered that Olaitan, who sustained gunshot injury in his right eye, has been receiving treatment at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, since then. But doctors in the teaching hospital have referred the victim to United Kingdom for better treatment, which is estimated to gulp £10,000 (equivalent of N4.6million), excluding his flight and reservation.
The NUT chairman said Olaitan has not been able to keep in medical trip in the United Kingdom due to financial constraints, saying: “As a responsible trade union organisation, the leadership of NUT, Oyo State Wing has decided to show concern over the deteriorating health status of Mr. Olaitan when his matter was subjected to critical debate and resolved to evoke the spirit of Article 14 of the union’s constitution, which emphasised corporate assistance to any member of the union facing one form of distress or the other.”
Akano and Olojede explained that NUT made the gesture in support of medical expenses the victim had incurred since the incident occurred in December last year, appealing to Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, corporate organisations and philanthropists to extend financial support to Olaitan to save his life.
Olojede stated that the union had helped many teachers that were in need of assistance in the past, assuring that the presentation of N450,000 to Olaitan, was for a start, as the union would do more to ensure that the victim survives.
Olaitan, who said he had been in teaching profession in the past 19 years, told newsmen: “I was driving from Agodi Gate towards Oje. A truck was coming and policemen were pursuing it. The trick driver drove roughly possibly to resist arrest. When thd truck eventually pulled up, a police van parked behind it. People ran heater skelter.”
He stated further that he heard a gunshot when another police patrol van also pulled up at the place, “I was driving in my own car. By the time I pulled up, I saw blood coming out of my right eye, and that was how I was rushed to the hospital.”