Lawrence Onoja Lied: Medical Doctor Say He Was Not Shot

ABUJA, March 13, (THEWILL) – It has emerged that a Senatorial candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Benue State, General Lawrence Onoja lied to reporters when he claimed he was shot by the opposition last week during a campaign stomp in Otukpo, Benue State.

Onoja had accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for the senatorial seat of shooting him on Tuesday night.

But the Nazareth Hospital, Otukpo, told journalists that he was treated for a cut that may have occurred courtesy of “a piece of glass’ or something like that.”

The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Jibril Omale, who also treated the Benue South Senatorial District candidate, said Onoja’s claim that he was shot in Otukpo was inaccurate.

“He was brought in with a group of people and when I saw him, the right arm, there was blood stain. On the left arm and part of his garment was stained with blood also. There was wound in the front part that is the anterior part of the left arm. It measured about two centimeters traverse diameter. On detailed examination, I think it’s a piece of shrapnel, its very difficult to actually tell what caused it, but I suspect that it could be a piece of glass, splinter of glass or something like that.”

He said Onoja was not admitted and that the cut was not severe enough to cause any medical problems for the former soldier challenging another former soldier and current Senate President David Mark for the Senatorial slot of the zone.

“A nurse has been going home to change the dressing and monitoring him. There was no life threatening problem apart from the injury on his left arm,” Dr Omale said.

The Senate President had issue a statement earlier denying any complicity in the alleged shooting and called on the police force to investigate the incident to determine the facts and possibly prosecute anyone found culpable.