‘Why We Transferred Rivers Lawmaker From London Hospital’

The member of the Rivers State House of
Assembly, Mr. Michael Chinda, who was hit
with a mace by the Majority Leader, Mr.
Chidi Lloyd, has been transferred from the
Cromwell Hospital in London to an
undisclosed hospital for security reasons.
Chinda, who sustained head injuries during a
free-for-all that took place in the chambers of
the state House of Assembly on July 9, 2013,
was taken to a London hospital for medical
attention.
Though an international online news portal
had reported that Chinda had been discharged
from the London hospital, SUNDAY PUNCH
gathered that the injured lawmaker was taken
away from the hospital for security reasons.
The Peoples Democratic Party in the state had
flown the lawmaker abroad after being
admitted for a few days in a local hospital.
Speaking in a telephone interview with our
correspondent, the state Chairman of the PDP,
Mr. Felix Obuah, said it was not true that
Chinda had been treated and discharged from
the hospital.
Obuah explained that the huge number of
people streaming into the Cromwell Hospital
to see the injured lawmaker, representing
Obio/Akpor Constituency 2, made the issue of
securing Chinda's life difficult.
He said though Chinda had yet to recover
from the injuries sustained after being hit with
a mace, the lawmaker's health was stable.
"It is wrong for any person to say that he
(Chinda) has been discharged. But for security
reasons, we made sure that he was transferred
out of the hospital.
"We had to transfer him to another hospital
because a lot of people were trooping in an
out of the hospital to see him. The moment we
made our visit to the hospital public, many
people we don't know began to visit Chinda.
"So, we had to move him out for security
reasons because we did not want anything
untoward to happen to him. For now, we do
not intend to tell anybody the hospital where
Chinda has been admitted," the state PDP
chairman added.
On the specific health condition of the
lawmaker, Obuah said Chinda had begun to
talk, adding that the lawmaker sometimes
hallucinates while trying to speak.
The state PDP chairman also said Chinda could
only walk with the assistance of a nurse and
his wife, describing the the lawmaker's injury
as severe.
He explained that the law should be allowed to
take its course in the case concerning the
assault against Chinda and maintained that
nobody was above the law.