After the #EndSARS shooting in Lagos State on October 20, 2020, Temitope Oshodi, a widowed 48-year-old woman, spoke about the struggles her 30-year-old son Ridwan Oshodi is currently facing.
Temitope explained how her kid was shot at the Ojuelegba bridge in an interview with Punch after Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu imposed a curfew in response to the #EndSARS protest.
The widow in Lagos said that her son underwent two operations and that they were forced to spend all of their savings on medical expenses, medications, X-rays, and physical therapy.
She said that some government representatives phoned them from Alausa, Ikeja, after the video of his kid went viral and requested them to provide certain medical report paperwork for help, but nothing was done.
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Temitope revealed that her 30-year-old son has been compelled to wear diapers owing to the severity of his wounds when discussing the situation of her son.
She uttered: “In the morning of the following day after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos declared a curfew, he told me that he was done with the job and he was on his way home. Just some seconds after we spoke on phone, I heard gunshots around Ojuelegba bridge. I started to try to call him, to tell him to watch his steps. Then we heard cries and shouts that Ridwan had been shot by policemen. We rushed out to rescue him. We took him to Havana Hospital nearby where he was given first aid treatment. He was shot in the stomach. The doctor said the bullet had come out of his back and that his backbone was affected. He said the case was more serious than he could handle at the hospital and referred us to LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital)”.
“We were in LUTH for about four to five months. They did two surgeries for him. I spent N500,000 on his treatment before pleading with the doctors to discharge him because I had spent all I had and I could no longer afford the medical bills. I had borrowed heavily to buy drugs, and pay for X-rays and physiotherapy”.
“My children and neighbours did a video and government officials called us from Alausa to come for support. We were asked to submit some documents (medical reports and evidence of bills paid). Six months after submitting the documents, they told us they couldn’t find the documents anymore. They said we should submit the documents afresh. We did that but still nothing has happened up till now; we haven’t heard from them”.
“We still go to LUTH for physiotherapy. We pay 25,000 every month. We have started seeing some improvement. He can talk now, but he still cannot walk; he only crawls and uses diapers. Doctors are assuring us that he will walk again but they said they can’t tell how soon it will be. They had earlier said he wouldn’t be able to walk again because his spinal cord was affected. So, I went to price a wheelchair; they said it was N48, 000”.
