Justice, Where are Thou?

Dr. (Mrs.) Chinyere Okafor, an Enugu based medical expert, was in far away United States when a friend of hers, last year, October 6, rang her up from Nigeria to inquire whether she had read the day’s newspaper publications. (Picture left shows Ogbonna Onovo,Nigeria's Police Inspector-General)

The holidaying consultant gynecologist Okafor answered in the negative, and the friend, to her shock, banged the phone on her, saying: “I don’t know that you people could degenerate to such a low level of practice to make money”.

The exasperated consultant gynecologist later discovered that her reputable hospital, Chief Dennis Okafor Memorial Hospital, established way back in 1984, had come under vicious media attacks following parade of her two male children, Obinna and Ugochukwu, as well as some of her employees, including Esther Ogbonna and Ada Okenwa (both nurses) by Enugu state Police Command before journalists and members of the public.

Sani Magaji, the state’s Police Commissioner then, had, while conducting the controversial parade, accused the hospital’s management of child trafficking, claiming, among other things, that his men rescued seven pregnant teenage girls in its confinement.

But a new twist crept into the matter when Enugu state government, through her Ministry of Gender Affairs and Social Development, cleared Okafor’s hospital of the child trafficking and sale of babies charge by the police. Particularly, Commissioner in charge of the ministry then, Mrs. S.O. Mmamel, on the same day, alongside Mrs. D.U. Onah, an official of the ministry, visited Police Commissioner Magaji, and officially intimated him that Chief Dennis Okafor Memorial Hospital, located in Udi Sidings/Kingsway Road area of Enugu, was duly certified to handle social mothers. Magaji was, also, informed by the Gender Affairs Ministry that all the arrested social mothers were registered with the plaintiff, that is, the hospital, and the ministry.

Observing that Magaji had resolved to pay deaf ears to her ministry’s explanations, Commissioner Mmamel, subsequently, fired a letter, referenced ENS/MGASD/COMM S.I/VOL.1/192, to him, insisting that the management of Chief Dennis Okafor Memorial Hospital never contravened any law to have warranted such a public disgrace.

The letter, dated October 7, 2008, and signed by Vivienne A. Eze (Mrs.), on behalf of the Commissioner, stated: “I wish to inform you that my ministry is fully aware of the admission of these social mothers at that hospital (written evidence of which have been submitted to the State Police CID Investigation Officer) as the hospital is one of the collaborating centers for shelter and medicare to social mothers”

Available documents show that the government of Enugu state had, in October of 2007, given an approval to the hospital to admit, shelter and provide necessaries to social mothers in its custody. The approval was, as a matter of fact, contained in a document referenced as ENS/MGASD/SWD/H/F191.

The Okafors had explored all avenues to regain their battered reputation to no avail. First, they wrote, through their lawyer, G.E. Ezeuko (Jnr.), to the respective media houses, demanding retraction and an apology for publishing the unfounded stories against their hospital. But the media outfits snubbed the demands.

Thus at the moment, the plaintiff (Dennis Memorial Hospital) is in the court of law, determined to clear her name, which they insist, had been dragged to the mud by a coalition of Enugu state police command and some media houses, including Leadership, ThisDay, Vanguard and Sun newspapers among others. The contention of the Okafors is that the words of the publications, in their ordinary and natural meanings, meant and were understood to mean that they (the plaintiff) were operating a criminal enterprise for trafficking and/or sale of babies for ritual and other purposes.

“The said publication has lowered the hospital’s standing and reputation in the estimation of its numerous patients, friends, relations, foreign partners and associate bodies and exposed us to odium and ridicule. It has seriously affected the fortunes of the plaintiff”, lamented Dr. (Mrs.) Okafor, the hospital’s proprietor, in her statement on oath.

The Okafors lament that the most annoying aspect of the whole episode was the display of the alleged malicious story on the internet and its subsequent sale to the public, including friends, relations and official bodies to which the hospital belongs in Enugu and elsewhere who had telephoned the holidaying Medical Director to express their disgust over the hospital’s alleged involvement ‘in such a despicable act’.

Consequently, the aggrieved medical outfit presently claims N100 million damages from the defendants for libel and defamation. The plaintiff, also, prays the court for an injunction restraining the defendants from further publication of the said libel, an order compelling the Police Commissioner (fourth defendant) to publicly retract the allegations contained in the said publication, as well as an order compelling the defendants to publish, in their various media, unqualified apology in the hospital’s favor.

For now, the matter rages, with the Okafors bent on a redress of the injustice meted out to them. The question remains whether Chief Dennis Okafor Memorial Hospital, noted for expertise in infant and maternal medicine for decades, will get justice in the court of law, the last hope of the common man?

The answer, certainly, lies in the womb of time!