#EndSARS: Edo to offset medical bills of two hearing impaired persons – Official

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has promised to offset the medical bills of two hearing-impaired persons allegedly shot by the police and army during the #EndSARS protests in Benin.

Justice Ada Ehigiamisoe, the chairperson of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry in the state, who disclosed this on Monday, said the government offered to pay the victims’ bills after a petition by the Edo State Association of the Deaf.

The petition was sent to the government through the panel.

The two victims, identified as Bright Osarobo and Osazee Festus, were said to have been shot in separate incidents on October 20 in Benin by police and army officers.

The Chairman of the Edo State Association of the Deaf, Kingsley Eromosele, said in the petition that Mr Osarobo was shot a few metres from his house by the police.

He was hospitalised and operated on his right hip and abdomen at Time Hospital and later transferred to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), the chairman said.

Mr Osarobo, whose right leg was amputated due to the gravity of the injury from the gunshot also suffered renal failure as a result of complications from the abdominal operation, according to the chairman.

Mr Eromosele said Mr Festus, on the other hand, was reportedly shot at the back of his neck by an army officer, while waiting on the road to be hired as an artisan.

He was said to have been rushed to a nearby hospital before he was transferred to UBTH.

Mr Festus, he said, runs the risk of being bedridden as a result of a spinal cord injury.

(NAN)