The dinner time of a 70-year-old was ruined by a strange bullet that pierced the roof of the kitchen in their home and hit the aged woman’s grandson in the left eye. Now the distraught family is left to seek funds from the public for a life-saving surgery for the hapless boy, KUNLE AKINRINADE reports.

All Madam Victoria Akinwande wanted to do when she retired to her 41, Oko Oba Road residence in Agege area of Lagos State on July 26 was to prepare dinner early so she could go to bed on time. Cruel fate, however, had other ideas.

While she was busy with the cooking around 6pm, a bloody incident ruined her hope of enjoying the meal and going to bed on time. A strange object landed with a bang on the roof of the kitchen, and before she knew what was happening, her grandson Adewale Akinwande’s face was covered in blood.

Adewale was immediately rushed to a pharmacy across the road where the family lives for first aid treatment, but he was rejected. The 12-year-old JSS 2 student of Orile Agege Community Junior High School was eventually taken to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, where doctors confirmed the strange object to be bullet.

At the residence of the victim, the bullet left a gaping hole on the roof it pierced through before landing on Adewale’s left eyes and stuck there.

“Adewale was assisting his grandmother with cooking when the unfortunate incident occurred,” a spokesperson for the family, Ahaja Risikat Akala, said.

“We initially thought that it was a stone thrown by someone that hit him on the left eye, not knowing that it was something worse than we thought after doctors ran tests on him and confirmed the strange object to be a bullet.

“The boy was taken to some places for treatment, including a drug store and a private hospital, where the people in charge at these health facilities said his case was beyond one they could handle.

“We were left with no option but to rush him to LASUTH at Ikeja where he was tested and discovered that the strange object was a bullet and it was stuck in his left eye.”

The Incident was reported to the Abattoir Police Division and detectives from the station visited the scene of the incident at the home of Adewale’s grandmother on Wednesday.

It was learnt that policemen from the station were also at LASUTH to see Adewale at the ward where he was admitted for treatment.

Akala said: “We were advised to incident the matter with the police and we did. We actually reported the incident to the Abattoir Police Station at Oko Oba, and men of the station have visited the scene and also went to see Adewale at LASUTH to ascertain the veracity of the incident as part of their investigation.”

Crestfallen Madam Akinwande described the incident as bizarre, saying “nobody knew where the bullet came from to land on our roof and hit my grandson’s eye. I am currently on my way again with the police to see Adewale at LASUTH.

Adewale’s father, who is my son, has been sick for some months now. The boy’s mother abandoned him and his two siblings when they were toddlers.

“When we called her on the phone, she said nothing must happen to her son and hung up on us.

“At the moment, the burden of taking care of Adewale, his siblings and their sick father is on me at my old age.”

Meanwhile, doctors at LASUTH, according to the family said that it would take a team of expert surgeons to handle Adewale’s case, adding that it is one that must be handled by specialised surgeons.

“At LASUTH, we were told that it would take the combined efforts of the surgeons to remove the bullet from where it lodges in Adewale’s eye.

“The doctors handling his case at the hospital told us that it is a delicate one because of the way the bullet got into his eye.

“We were told that surgeons handling the brain and eyes would be required to handle surgical procedures that could salvage his condition and restore him to good health,” Akala said.

He added: “The family does not have the kind of money needed to save Adewale whose father is currently sick and his treatment has been sustained with contributions from family members.

“We were told at the hospital that it would cost us around N3 million to take care of Adewale’s surgery, and we don’t have that kind of money now.

“It is for this reason that I am appealing on behalf of our family for financial assistance from Nigerians to save Adewale’s life.

“Currently, the boy continues to suffer pains while there is little hope of raising the money or amount required to finance the life-saving surgery prescribed by doctors at LASUTH.”

Donations can be forwarded to an Ecobank account number 3510099310 opened with the name: Akinwande Adewale Julius. The spokesperson of the family, Alhaja Risikat Akala can also be contacted on her mobile phone number 08055250234.

Contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Superintendent of Police (SP) Benjamin Hundeyin said in a WhatsApp message sent to our reporter that the boy claimed he was wounded while playing at an undisclosed location while an investigation had commenced on the matter.

Hundeyin said: “The mother of the boy reported on August 13, 2024 an incident that allegedly happened on July 26, 2024, over two weeks after. An investigation has commenced.

“The boy claims he got the injury while playing somewhere while his mother claimed he got the injury in the house. Efforts are on to unravel the true circumstances surrounding the incident.”

The police statement was however refuted by the spokesperson of the victim’s family, Mrs. Risikat Akala, who said the police were struggling to discountenance an incident about a suspicious stray bullet even though the bullet is still lodged in Adewale’s eye.

“The police are lying. We reported the matter at Abattoir Police Station and men of the station have visited the boy at LASUTH.

“The report of the scan carried out at LASUTH also confirmed the bullet was lodged in Adewale’s eye.

“Therefore, if the police are saying that the boy got wounded while playing somewhere, it means that they may have been the one that fired a bullet somewhere before the bullet flew and struck our son.”

Meanwhile, a copy of the scan carried out at the diagnostic centre in LASUTH obtained by our reporter shows that a bullet is lodged in Adewale’s eye.

The report signed by a Consultant Radiologist reads in part: “Findings: Bone window images show minimally displaced focal comminuted fractures of the right parietal bone and the roof of the left orbit. A diagonal hypodense band is seen traversing the brain connecting these two fractures.

“A bullet (measuring 29mm x 10mm) is lodged within the left orbit in the superomedial extraconal space.

“Extensive streak artefacts caused by the bullet obscure details of the left orbit. Within this limitation, there is a normal limit of 2.5ml.

“There are inflammatory changes in the left orbit with left eye proptosis. The right orbit is normal. Penetrating brain and left orbital injury with a bullet lodged in the left orbit.’’ (The Nation)

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