The Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, on Monday, visited the family of two-year-old Ivan Omorhiakogbe, who was killed by a stray bullet allegedly fired by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Okpanam area of the state capital last Thursday.
Oborevwori visited the family at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, where the younger sibling, Eromonsele, a one-year-old, was receiving treatment for bullet injuries sustained in his left eye.
The governor sympathised with the family over the unfortunate demise of Ivan and promised that all efforts would be made to bring the culprits to book.
Oborevwori said: “When we heard the unfortunate news, we immediately issued a statement calling on the NDLEA authorities and the police command to quickly investigate the circumstances, which led to the death of your son and injury to his younger sibling.
“On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, we commiserate with you and your family over the loss of your son, Ivan.
“We have so much confidence in the police and as you know, they are carrying out their investigation; they will not make the outcome public until they are through with their investigations. So, rest assured that the culprits would be brought to book.
“Once again, I commiserate with your family for this loss and I am happy that Eromonsele is recovering”.
He commended the medical personnel at the hospital for being proactive in treating the younger sibling, assuring that the state government would pick up all the medical bills related to the incident.
“I had sent people here earlier to find out what they were doing and I am happy that they were able to save Eromonsele’s life and I know that he will come out strong.
“The state government will foot the bills for the hospital treatment, so no money should be taken from the family”, the governor said.
Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass, assured the governor and the family of the command’s commitment to ensuring a thorough investigation into the matter.
Briefing the governor earlier, Head of Opthalmology Department at the hospital, Dr. Ernest Ogbedo, said they had successfully covered the eye to prevent infections, adding that further surgeries would be carried out on the eye.
“We have done one surgery but the child is going to need some other surgeries because there is an eye injury which the doctors went through and covered the injury.
“We did an X-ray first and luckily there were no bullet pellets around but we are going to carry out further investigation to see the extent of the injury”, the doctor said.
