Message to every visitor travelling to Nigeria

By Samuel Tilahun (M.D.)

April 14, 2006

Abuja City as partially seen from Abuja Hotel (Photo: Bill Lovelock)

This article is a real story of a survivor of gunshot injury in Abuja, Nigeria. I work for the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office as national project appraisal officer and head of the project appraisal unit. I was told about bad incidences and risks of robbery, murder and problems of safety before I left for Nigeria to participate in the 14th ICASA (International Conference on AIDS and STI-Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa). I even heard the story of robbery of other ICASA participants broadcast by BBC two days before my travel to Nigeria. However, I did not believe and refrain from traveling till I suffered the brutal attack and robbery.

The 14th ICASA conference was held in Abuja, Nigeria 5-9 December 2005. There was strong lobbying two years ago in Nairobi, Kenya during the 13th ICASA conference by those organizers of the 14th ICASA conference, may be because of the fear of such stupid consequences by the citizens of other countries there could be rejection of taking the conference to Nigeria. On 2 December 2005 I and the other Ethiopian delegates left for Nigeria and on the same day we arrived at Lagos. Some of the delegates went to Abuja on the same day for fear of attack and robbery in Lagos (which is worse than Abuja).

On the other hand, most of us spent the night in Lagos almost closed because of fear in the hotel (Arc Hotel) booked by the Ethiopian Airlines. The next day I went to Abuja by air (Virgin Nigeria Airline) and stayed there at Bowlingo Hotel for two days with the other Ethiopian delegates. Because it was very expensive most of the delegates went to other cheaper hotels which were also listed as safe and comfortable by sources within the conference organizers. For instance, Tamara Guest Inn, the place where I was staying and in the end attacked by the robbers inside the hotel, was cited as “safe” in the program documents prepared by the conference organizers.

Many delegates, including myself, went to Tamara Guest Inn in Wuse district. After attending the opening ceremony at Eagle Square and the plenary session as well as the satellite sessions in the ICC and other places 04-05 December 2005 every participant started to go back home. It was this time the crazy Nigerian murderers and robbers started to acheive their means of livelihood. On 10 December 2005, Ethiopian delegates, one Cameroonian participant and I myself were calling for the so called free shuttle taxis prepared by the conference organizers. In practice, they are collaborators of the robbers because they came together and they robbed….If the robbery operation would fail in the city, they would follow us all the way to the airport 40 km away, rob and kill us (imagine the vulnerability of the travelers to be attacked on the way to the airport).

At about 10:30AM two taxis arrived at the hotel. I went out of the hotel compound and told one of the taxi drivers to go to Annex Hotel situated at the back side and the second one entered the compound where we were. I and the Cameroonian loaded our luggage and I was making telephone calls to tell the remaining Ethiopian friends to go together to the airport but the line was busy and I was annoyed by that but the worst happened just when I turned my face to the taxi. I faced two young men one with cape having pistols and aiming at me and the Cameroonian. I was shocked by what I faced but I was cool trying to hide my fear and did not make any movement. They first ordered the Cameroonian to give them his cell phone and then they did the same to me and we both gave them. Then they ordered me to drop my bag which I had carried on my left shoulder and then politely I told them that there were air tickets and other important documents in the bag and leave them for me.

But they became more aggressive, clicked their pistols and ordered me to drop the bag for the second time and when I was quiet, one of them pulled the bag and dropped it on the ground. This time by reflex I bent down to pick up my bag and then they fired at me. I retreated back from the compound and went into the restaurant where I saw that I was bleeding profusely from both my legs. Everybody including the hotel staffs disappeared. I was looking for help from the receptionists, at least to take me to a hospital. But everyone of them went into their room from the backside where I faced one of the escaping murderer robbers who fired at me again for fear of being followed by me out of the hotel compound. Fortunately his bullet missed me. I lost consciousness, fell on the ground, sustained further injury on my face and teeth and I was conscious when I got my self in the backseat of that shuttle taxi in lying position. I was begging the taxi driver to take me to hospital so that I could survive. But they refused to do so; instead, they wanted to take me to the police station because they wanted to clear their names first as if they didn’t commit the crimes (imagine the regulation when a dying person is first reported to the police and after death is taken to a hospital!).

Fortunately one of the Ethiopians residing in that hotel told the taxi drivers to take me first to the hospital and then save my life, and they did accordingly. There the sad thing was that those people who were around me after the attack took my wrist watch, wallet and everything I had as a leftover from the murderer robbers. They did this as I was on the verge of death, being restless because of the loss of almost three-fourth of my blood. The act of stealing from a person who was dying makes me question the presence of faith, moral or good social norm and culture in Nigeria. For that matter, I heard from people living in Nigeria that the people were busy looting the belongings of victims of the crash who were still alive but were being burned along with the wreckage.

So I did not wonder because of what they did to me. After I was taken to the hospital I did not stop my struggle to survive and my medical profession helped me a lot to bargain for what I needed to survive, and asked for immediate assistance. I was arguing with the nurse who was cleaning the blood while I was asking for glucose and intravenous fluid to refill the lost blood and the circulation at Cornerstone Hospital, from where I was referred to National Hospital of Abuja for blood transfusion. Here I was told to take four to five units of blood in order to survive and initially I refused the idea of blood transfusion for fear of contracting HIV infection; however, later on, my condition was worsening and I agreed to take the blood. The problem was that the Ethiopians were asked to give the specific blood type, O negative – Universal donor, to be given to me otherwise the blood bank of the hospital did not want to give me the blood and save my life. Fortunately one Ethiopian lady gave O negative blood but it was not sufficient and my Ethiopian brothers and sisters paid US $327 dollars for three units of blood from the hospital blood bank and I received the blood and my life was saved. At this point I saw two things which are against the normal medical practice:

1. As a blood bank not to accept any type of blood from donors and give what is needed by the bleeding patient who is on the verge of death from the stock of the bank. The request for O negative blood from donors seems the pretext not to accept other types of blood and to sell blood to needy patients.
2. Selling blood for a patient in such huge institution

After such incidences and four days of stay in the hospital, I wanted to leave that country and came back to Ethiopia and followed my treatment here. During my stay in the hospital and airport terminals everybody including the ICASA organizers were giving me lip-service. And one policeman offended me by saying he did not have fracture simply because he saw me walking and wanted to make notion of simplicity of the injury to those around me. As to him to make the crime and the injury significant I should have died or all the bones should have crumpled. The other policemen came to the hospitals to take my words about the incident but they were asking me at the wrong time because I was restless, unable even to make coherent speech because of the loss of blood. What surprised me was that they did not come to ask for my words after I was stabilized and when they were asked to investigate the crime – meaning look for the murderers — they were asking for money for travel expenses. I have never seen an institution without budget and vehicles to carry out its duty and responsibility.

At this juncture I want to be the witness for the negligence of the police and the security in Nigeria which could not protect not only me, the living witness, but also other victims who suffered robbery, injury, disability and death at different times.

I heard many tragic stories while I was at National Hospital of Abuja from residents in Abuja. Now when I am alone all the events of that bad incidence come to my mind and I start to say by any standard: moral, religion, culture and social norm it is better to beg ( ask someone to share what s/he has) rather than to murder and rob people. First of all I was one of their guests and guests should be respected, if it is like in my country Ethiopia. Second, what is my crime to deserve death in the hands of robbers, leave my kids as orphans and vulnerable children? Third, why did the conference organizers and the Nigerian government host such a conference if they can not guarantee the safety of conference participants? And should I be at risk of HIV infection because of the blood transfusion? All these questions and ideas come now and then to my mind because I was an innocent victim.

Anyways I will stand in court and ask for justice. At last I want to extend my heart felt gratitude to all Ethiopians, whose names I can not finish listing, who helped me, saved my life, visited me during my life-and-death ordeal in a strange land and society. And I want to express my disappointment about the omission of the short briefing about this story in the ETV news coverage about the 14th ICASA.