NSCDC officer stabbed to death in Abuja

Tragedy struck in the Bwari area of Abuja as a personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), identified as Akpan Blessing, was reportedly stabbed to death by unknown assailants.

The incident occurred in the early hours of last week Tuesday, right in front of her residence in Piawe, a community in Bwari. The circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear, and the perpetrators have yet to be identified.

Blessing was rushed to the Bwari General Hospital, where medical personnel confirmed her dead on arrival.

Blessing’s friends, who spoke to our correspondent on Monday, said the deceased was rushed to different hospitals after the attack but she was denied immediate treatment because of the absence of a police report.

One of the friends, who did not want her name in print mentioned, said the first medical facility Blessing was taken to was Gabriel Hospital, before she was subsequently taken to St. Theresa Hospital – both in Bwari town.

Speaking in a distraught tone, she said the NSCDC officer lost her life because she had lost so much blood before she was attended to at Bwari General Hospital where she was later confirmed dead.

“It is painful that we lost officer Blessing as she was fondly called due to a weaken and uncoordinated system,” she said, adding “someone was dying and you insisted there there must be a police report before she was attended to.

“Honestly, this is very sad to say the least. Besides, she’s also a security personnel. We showed them her office identity card, they still didn’t attend to her, hence the reason we were taking her from one place to another until she died.”

When asked how she was stabbed, another friend explained that “she was on way somewhere and some persons wanted to rob her of her belongings. I guess they had to stab her to have their way.”

When contacted, the spokesperson of the Nigerian police in the Federal Capital Territory Command, Josephine Adeh, referred our correspondent to the authorities of the NSCDC for official comment regarding the matter.

Adeh, a Superintendent of Police, noted that the reference became imperative because the matter was not reported to the police, saying NSCDC might likely carry out investigations on the matter on its own.

Similarly, NSCDC spokesman, Babawale Afolabi, told Daily Trust on phone that it is the FCT Command of the agency that would give official position and update on the matter.

But repeated calls to the Commandant of the NSCDC in the FCT Command, Olusola Odumosu, rang unanswered, and he was yet to respond to a text message sent to him as at when filing this report.

Meanwhile, commenting on the incident, Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, described as “illegal and unethical” for medical personnel to be waiting for police report in the case of emergencies.

“The fact that a victim of violence was abandoned to die while awaiting police paperwork speaks to a grave failure of both the healthcare and policing systems. This is not only heartbreaking but also in direct violation of Nigerian law,” Nwanguma lamented.

He said Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017 mandates all hospitals — public and private, to provide immediate and adequate care to victims of gunshot wounds or life-threatening injuries without demanding a police report as a precondition for treatment.