Auxiliary nurse arraigned for preventing illegal abortion

CP Umar Manko

The police in Lagos has arraigned before Justice Kudirat Jose of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, an auxiliary nurse, Jimoh Ismail, over allegation of neglect to prevent the procurement of an illegal abortion of one Joy Endurance.

The nurse, it would be recalled had through his lawyer, Dele Oloke, told the judge that the abortion which led to the death of Endurance was conducted by Dr. Lekan Wahab, who is still at large.

But according to the police prosecution witness, Inspector Solomon Ojo-Oni, argued that though the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advice stated that the said abortion was carried out by Wahab, it was the defendant who did the abortion.

The witness said, "The defendant claim not to be the one that did the abortion. But one Blessing Edet, in her statement, has said the defendant had done one abortion for her before.

"It was the Blessing that brought the deceased to the defendant for the abortion. I have used 10 years in the homicide section of Panti and I have 25 years experience in the police force."

The prosecution also informed the judge that no autopsy was conducted on the corpse, but a thorough investigation was carried out. Inspector Ojo-Oni pointed out that the deceased was 5 months pregnant before she was taken to the defendant for abortion, adding that "Endurance died after two weeks of the abortion due to complications. The Dr. Lekan that the defendant mentioned is nowhere to be found."

The prosecution also explained that the reason the police later decided to use its 3rd suspect (Blessing) was because she brought the deceased to the defendant and she too had done an abortion through the same defendant.

The inspector stated further that, "But now, Blessing cannot be reached. Each time we call her number, the response we get is that it is not reachable. When it became obvious that we cannot reach Blessing anymore, the only thing we did was to inform the prosecution counsel."

The charge designated ID/193C/1 reads: "Jimoh Ismail (M) on December 7, 2012 at about 14:00hrs at Omobolaji Hospital, Bada Ayobo Lagos, in the Ikeja Judicial Division did neglect to prevent the procurement of an illegal abortion for one Joy Endurance."

The offence according to the prosecution offends Section 408 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011.

The matter has been adjourned till September 25, 2014.