Some of the soldiers who sustained varying degrees of injuries on the battle field while repelling the several onslaughts in the fights against the notorious Boko Haram insurgents, and who are receiving medical treatment at the 44, Army Referral Hospital, Kaduna, have disclosed that injured soldiers with worst cases usually need the “right connections” to be flown abroad for proper treatment.

Arewa PUNCH reports that many of the injured soldiers were predominantly from Maiduguri, among other states.

Some of the soldiers who spoke with our correspondent under the condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised or sanctioned for going against military rule, when he visited the hospital lamented that they have had to sponsor and foot most parts of their medical bills with their salary which is not enough to take care of their families.

Arewa PUNCH recalls that an angry soldier in a viral video had accused the Nigerian military authorities of abandoning injured soldiers in hospitals across the country.

In the eight-minute, 14-second video, the visibly angry soldier, who spoke in pidgin English, claimed that many wounded soldiers at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna and the 7 Division Medical Services including the Hospital in Maiduguri have been left to cater to their own treatment, despite sustaining injuries in the course of service to the nation.

A 26-year-old private army officer who was shot in his thigh during an ambush raid by the notorious Boko-haram outlaws in an operation in 2022 and was rushed to the army hospital, lamented that he had spent over N400,000 buying drugs and other medical accessories to dress the injury he sustained on his right thigh.

According to him, four surgeries have been carried out on the thigh without any improvement. As such, he bemoaned that if he had his way, he would have moved out of the hospital to properly take care of himself else.

He cried o ut that since his passing out parade in 2021 upto the period his unit sent him to Maiduguri where he got attacked in 2022 and was brought to the 44 referral hospital nobody ever cared to call or reach out to him to know how well he was faring.

He disclosed further that “some of us with serious challenges need a serious connection to be flown abroad for proper medical services.”

When he was asked what he meant by “serious connections to be flown abroad for proper medical services,” he simply explained: “Are you not a Nigerian? Don’t you know that you need a serious connection within the army top echelon or any high-ranking politician before you’ll be considered among the wounded soldiers that will be flown abroad for proper medical treatment?”

He insisted that those of them who do not have any connections have been abandoned without any hope of them leaving the hospital anytime soon.

“Another operation needs to be carried out on my leg for the fifth time again since last year June, but until now, no specific date yet,” another bedridden soldier told Arewa PUNCH.

He continued, “I have spent close to two years now while there are some who have spent more than five years with similar cases.


https://punchng.com/you-need-connections-to-travel-abroad-for-treatment-allege-wounded-soldiers/