A
Federal High Court, Lagos, has awarded N100 million damages against the
Nigerian Navy and one of its officers, Commander C.T Olowu, for
negligence, which led to grievous bodily harm and permanent loss of
reproductive organs of a woman, Mrs. Joy Bassey.
The plaintiff had dragged the Navy and Olowu, who was said to be a consultant gynaecologist/surgeon to court for negligence.
Mrs.
Bassey, who was admitted at Nigerian Navy Medical Centre, while in
labour, had argued that the negligence of Olowu led to the death of her
baby and also permanent damage to her womb, as she can no longer bear a
child.
The
suit was instituted for the plaintiff by Mrs. Marian Jones of the Lagos
branch of International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA.
Trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, in his judgment, noted that there was no a
mount of
monetary damages that could adequately compensate Mrs. Bassey for the
trauma she had been consigned to face for her life by the sad
development.
She
had contended that the negligence on the part of the defendants (Navy
and Olowu) occasioned often dysuria for her, which makes her now to
frequently go to the rest room because her bladder size/capacity had
decreased.
The
court said: “It is beyond denial that the unmitigated negligence and
most unprofessional conduct of Commander Olowu has ruined the
plaintiff’s marriage, destroyed her fertility and deprived her of peace
and happiness.In short, all attributes of womanhood in the plaintiff
have been ruined and her humanity generally, grossly diminished for
life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment