‘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, a source 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.