Mukaila Shobukola, the father of the schoolgirl who was hit by a stray bullet fired by police during a violent clash with Okada riders at Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos, has said he would have confronted the officer who fired the shot without minding the consequences.
Reports gathered that 14-year- old Marian Shobukola a Senior Secondary School Two pupil of Delight International School, Aboru, Lagos State was with her teacher when she was hit by the bullet during a protest last week.
Her dad said he was shattered by the incident but was full of thanks that his last child who is presently receiving treatment at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) is now recuperating.
Narrating how he heard about the incident, Shobukola, 55, in an interview with PunchNG, said he was at his workshop when he received a distress call from his wife that Mariam had been hit by a bullet.
“I felt disturbed; I lost my control and I almost ran mad,” he said.
“Without wasting time, I rushed to the scene of the incident. Behold, there was no vehicle as all commercial drivers in the area disappeared due to the clash. I had to trek the long distance. By that time, I heard that she had been rushed to a general hospital at Ile Epo. I had to trek there.
“Before then, I learnt that she was first taken to a private hospital where the doctors in attendance rejected her, saying they could not handle her case. When I got to Ile Epo, I met them. I was distraught. I spent some money. Still, they referred us to Ayinke General Hospital, Ikeja,”
The distraught father continued:
“I was told that my daughter was around their school (Delight International School Aboru) area when she suddenly fell down. It was then people around noticed that she had been hit by a bullet.
“I was not alright when I saw her. I was mad and if I had seen the police that shattered my daughter’s buttocks and waist that moment, I would have confronted them without minding the consequences. Right now, the incident has shattered me.”
Shobukola, however, appealed to the government and Nigerians to come to his aid in raising funds to clear Mariam’s hospital bills.
“Out of nothing, we have spent over N140,000. We are still spending. Doctors succeeded in removing the pellets from her body and we are being billed for surgery. Still, the treatment is ongoing and we are still spending. I need the intervention of the government and Nigerians because as I speak, I am lost in thought.”
He added that he rejected a sum of N20,000 the police offered them as support for Mariam’s hospital bills
“On Thursday, they sent a policewoman. She did not meet me at the hospital because I went to the laboratory. She met my wife and children there. She said her Divisional Police Officer gave her N20,000 to give to us over the incident.
“My wife told her she could not collect the money and that she was not the only one that gave birth to the child and she should wait for the father (me) to come. My wife called me to inform me about the development.
“When I met the policewoman, she said the DPO said she should give us N20,000. I rejected it because there was nothing to do with N20,000 and that my immediate concern was how to rescue my daughter from the jaws of death.”
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