I Lost My Pregnancy After KAI Men Detained Me- Nkechi Omakagwu

 Lord Have Mercy! I wonder the kind of men they put in this
so called Kai uniforms. My God, what kind of injustice is this? Just because
they couldn’t pay N10, 000 bribe, she had to lose her baby? If this woman can
grant this interview, then she shouldn’t just let this go. If she can’t
identify the men, at least she should be able to identify the Alhaja. I am very
sure their boss must not hear of this, double sure. In fact she should make all
the noise till the Governor hears her. 

One Nkechi Omakagwu has accused men of the Lagos State Kick
Against Indiscipline of being the cause of her miscarriage according to her,
she lost the pregnancy during many hours of gruelling experience in KAI’s
detention camp“Early in the morning of January 26, 2012, I was feeling pains in
my stomach but because it was midnight and the pain was not constant, I tried
to endure it. When it was 7am, my husband suggested that we go to a hospital
because it had become intense. He begged our neighbour, Emeka Ozor, to take me
to a hospital in Gbagada.

“When we got to Obanikoro, a team of KAI officials accosted
us and told us that we had no excuse for being out on sanitation day before
10am. One of the KAI men forced Ozor out of the driver’s seat and drove us to
their office.” She said on getting to the office, the vehicle was handed over
to a woman in mufti whom the KAI men referred to as Alhaja.

Nkechi said she pleaded with Alhaja to allow her go for
treatment but the woman did not agree, saying that there was no excuse for
contravening the state’s laws.

“While in serious pain, I pleaded with Alhaja to let me go
for treatment considering my condition but she refused. I even tried to appeal
to her feminine side since she ought to know what pregnancy pains feels like
but all my entreaties fell on deaf ears”, she said.

Nkechi said while she was pleading, another KAI official,
identified only as Emperor, told Alhaja that the amount of money that would be
paid as bail was N10,000.

She added that Alhaja said mockingly that if she wanted, she
could give birth to a baby in the compound.

Nkechi said when she could not produce the money, the KAI
men took her and Ozor, along with the vehicle to the premises of the
Magistrate’s Court in Ikoyi, where the KAI men demanded N50,000.

She said at that point, the pain had become constant and
more intense, adding that she began to have premature contractions.

She said she was released eight hours after her arrest after
parting with N5,000.

“I was released at 3pm, about eight hours after I was
arrested. The KAI men still held on to the vehicle, so my husband had to get a
taxi which took us down to the hospital. The KAI men collected N5,000 and did
not issue us a receipt,” she said.

She said on getting to the hospital, the doctor confirmed
that her pregnancy had been threatened as a result of ‘serious stress and
strain’ which she had gone through.

The doctor prescribed some drugs for her and confined her to
bed rest.

“On January 27 (the next day), I was diagnosed with
premature contractions and was later informed that the foetus was dead,” she
said.

Nkechi’s husband, Odinaka, lamented that the experience was
a very bad one for his wife, given the fact that the foetus would have been
their first child.

“This is very sad. The fact that it could have been
prevented is what makes it even more pathetic. I don’t know why the KAI men
were so callous to prevent her from going to the hospital where she had been
going for her ante-natal care,” he said.

A copy of the medical report made available to PUNCH Metro
said in part that the foetus died of ‘Cardio-pulmonary failure and
prematurity’.

Meanwhile, the vehicle, a Mitsubishi Bus with number plate,
BT292EPE, is still in custody of KAI.

When contacted on the telephone, the Senior Special
Assistant on Environmental Matters to the Governor and KAI Marshal-General,
Danjuma Maigeri, directed our correspondent to the Commissioner for Environment
for comments.

However, when contacted on the telephone, the spokesman for
the Ministry of Environment, Mr. Fola Adeyemi, directed our correspondent back
to KAI for comment.

Source: Punch