Family of slain Oyo lawmaker, Temitope Olatoye, has dragged the management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan to court, demanding N200 million as damages over the circulation of gory photos of the deceased’s bullet-riddled body on social media.
Mr Olatoye, popularly known as sugar, was the House of Representatives member for Lagelu/Akinyele Federal Constituency.
Olatoye was killed by gunmen during the governorship and State House of Assembly elections on March 9.
A petition written by the claimants’ counsel, C. C. Amedu, was sent to the minister of health and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Ibadan chapter.
Part of it read: “The above conduct of your staff suggested that instead of your personnel on duty to have acted in their full professional capacity, focusing on taking care of the deceased, which might have probably saved his life, they were busy taking his pictures which perhaps for the purpose of selling same to social media operators as it can be seen trending online.”
The family wants the pictures to be recalled from public domain, a written apology from the said members of staff which should be published in not less than three national newspapers, and the concerned staff punished.
The petition said the hospital must accede to the above requests within seven days or have “an aggravated negligence action” filed against it in court.
Olatoye, according to the family, will be buried on May 2.
