The National Orientation Agency (NOA) says health facilities are legally bound to treat people with gunshot wounds without hinderance.
Malam Ahmad Tijjani, the NOA Director in Jigawa gave the explanation during a sensitisation campaign on the provisions of the Gun Shot Act 2017.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the campaign took the NOA officials to the Police Headquarters in Dutse on Thursday.
The director said the gesture was to ensure that all stakeholders, including medical practitioners, comply with the Act.
Tijjani said the Act has given legal coverage for the treatment of persons who sustained gunshot injuries without any hindrance whatsoever, to forestall unnecessary loss of lives.
“As NOA continues to exert more impetus in its efforts to ensure adequate care and treatment for victims of gunshots, we are here because the police remains central in the success of the act.
“The act provides for compulsory treatment and care for victims of gunshots with or without police report; the overall objective of the act is to save life first, and that is why the police remains central to the success of this act,” he said.
The director said they had paid similar visits to other security agencies, public and private health facilities and other critical stakeholders in the state to remind them about the existence of the act and the need to comply with it.
Responding, the Commissioner of Police in state, Mr Ahmadu Abdullahi, appreciated the agency’s roles in ensuring a virile society and pledged that the command would totally support the enforcement of the law.
According to him, the Inspector-General of Police had already directed all commands to comply with its provisions.
He appealed to NOA to use its vast structures and platforms to help the police and other security agencies in correcting some social vices in the society. (NAN)
