Retired Justice of the Supreme Court and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, otherwise known as Oputa Panel, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, has suffered stroke and hospitalised.
Daily Sun gathered that the eminent jurist was hit by the ailment at the weekend and was rushed the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, the Imo State capital, where he is in critical condition.
Sources revealed that since he was taken to the hospital, Oputa had been in a bad shape, to the extent that doctors advised against any plan to move him out in a car, as the family wanted him transferred overseas for treatment.
It was gathered that doctors recommended that the retired justice could only be moved in an ambulance and airbus specially made for such delicate operations.
A source at the hospital told Daily Sun that Oputa needs to be transferred abroad, to a hospital that specialises in handling stroke, adding that efforts were being made to contact the Imo State Government and the Federal Government for assistance in securing special ambulance and airbus to fly Oputa abroad.
When contacted, Justice Oputa’s son, Charles, confirmed that his father had been hospitalised.
Justice Oputa, was appointed to investigate alleged abuses during 15 years of military rule, which ended when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office as elected president on May 29, 1999.
The Oputa panel also examined human rights abuses when Obasanjo was in power previously as a military ruler from 1976 to 1979.
The decision followed demands for a thorough investigation of rights abuses in Nigeria since independence in 1960.
The Oputa panel concluded its assignment, wherein actors in military governments were invited. However, the government is yet to implement the recommendation, prompting calls for action on it.
Former Chief of General Staff, Lt. General Oladipo Diya (retd) had called on President Goodluck Jonathan to implement the report.
Diya had said: “I want to thank the president for his kind gesture and to appeal to him to publish and implement the Oputa Panel report. This was a panel set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria with state fund and a report was submitted on it. A lot of findings and recommendations were made most especially on the phantom coups of 1995 and 1997.”
Diya made a reference to a similar panel that was set up in South Africa, known as Truth and Reconciliation Committee. The implementation of the committee, he said, contributed tremendously in stabilising and putting the country through path of growth.
SUN NEWSPAPERS
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