A CASE OF BAD BUSINESS GONE WORSE, BEGGING THE QUESTION "IS NIGERIA THEIR GRAVEYARDS"?

Many people are aware that HIV/AIDS is still a deadly disease even with the availability of medications for suppressing and keeping it at bay in patients when detected early even though a few other people still play games or gamble with their lives when it comes to playing safe. Apart from those who by virtue of mistakes, not on their part but got infested from visiting places such as saloons where needles for hair are most times shared or by using unsterilised items during pampering such as pedicures and manicures as well as wrongfully transfusing untested blood to patients by some doctors and nurses in hospitals thereby creating more problems for the patient in the times ahead, there are still some others who have thrown caution to the winds while indulging in certain practices including illicit sex, drugs and the ilk’s.

I saw a report recently on BBC where Vanessa Roberts was having a chat with one Victoria Derbyshire who was said to have being diagnosed with HIV in 2014 after living with the virus unknowingly for more than 30 years which was after I had read on the same report that in the UK, people with HIV are being diagnosed late because hospitals and GP practices in England and Scotland are ignoring guidelines and failing to carry out HIV checks. I thought it was just an African practice!

I was still in total shock and amazement over the news of Victoria living with HIV unknowingly for 30 years when I stumbled on a report by the Nigerian Vanguard a while ago.

According to the report, James Turner, a 67-year-old Irish national based in Nigeria knowing he was HIV positive confessed to have slept with no fewer than six other ladies having being accused by his 31-year-old Nigerian girlfriend, a Benue state-born lady who stumbled on Turners’ anti-retroviral drugs which he had been taking secretly for a couple of months, of deliberately infecting her with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV having dated him for about eight years.

One of the shocking twists to the story was that Turner also confessed that when his status was confirmed, in other not to infect his wife with the virus, sent his wife back to the Republic of Ireland. Talk about love for the innocent woman!

Shamefully, though not shocking, as it happens even with some supposedly responsible persons, it was gathered, during interrogation that among the girls the suspect had slept with was his girlfriend’s friend. The concerned ladies, it was gathered, were all commercial sex workers. Talk about a bad business, gone worse!

However, unconfirmed reports say he had slept with more than six ladies. His girlfriend, identified simply as Helen, reported Turner to the police last Friday, after the latter reneged on his promise to settle the former with N2.5 million. In these times? No wonder the guy reneged, because we all know that with the way the economy is at the moment, even the greatest form of acrobatics of sex in bed would not earn a hawker, one million naira, just like that.

According to the aggrieved prostitute and lover, she narrated that “When we got to Liester Hospital, Ikeja, they ran some tests on him because he was sweating and also running temperature. The doctor gave him drugs for malaria. “At that hospital, if one is sick and has such high temperature, they will run a HIV test on the person without his knowledge. After running the test on him, the doctor invited us to his office and asked if he could talk to him in my presence, he said no, that I should wait outside. The doctor thereafter, broke the news to him.

“When we got home, he was quiet. He did not tell me anything. I realised that he was taking a particular medication, which he hid from me. “There was a time I even drove to the hospital to pick a brown envelop, which was sealed, for him. It was his medication, but I did not open it. “When I discovered that he kept hiding his medication from me, I asked him what kind of medicine he was taking and he told me that it was for malaria and typhoid. I did not say anything because I thought that the prescription was for a long period of time”.

“He continued taking it for about three to four months. So, one day I opened the medication and wrote out the name of the drug. Thereafter, I googled the name on my phone to know what type of medication it was, to my shock I discovered it was an anti-retroviral for HIV.  I went to meet Jim in the living room and asked why he was taking medication meant for people living with HIV and also asked if he was HIV positive, but he said no. “He told me that the doctor gave him the medication for his legs, which has caused him sleepless nights.”

Helen’s worst fear was confirmed during a visit to the doctor, who disclosed that her lover was HIV positive. To ascertain her status, the doctor also ran a test on her, where she was discovered to have been infected with HIV. According to her, “since the visit to the doctor with Jim (her pet name for Turner) his love-making with me increased as if he was madly in love with me.”

Turner, who refused to speak with journalists, however, insisted that Helen infected him with the virus. But during interrogation by policemen at the Ikeja Division, he stated that he had to send his wife back to Ireland on discovering that he was HIV positive, in order not to infect her with the virus. He also said that he slept with other ladies after his status was confirmed, right in his apartment. He also insisted that Helen infected him with the virus, pointing out that she might have contacted the virus from Kaduna State, where she spent some months to sell a property in 2013, same year he was confirmed to be HIV positive.

But when asked why he hid the anti-retroviral drugs from Helen, he kept mum. He was released on bail over the weekend, to enable him get treatment for an injury he sustained on one of his elbows, from which he was bleeding. Police, however, assured that measures had been put in place to prevent further infection of other ladies by the suspect.

Finally, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the arrest, said: “We are waiting for expert’s opinion to conclude the charge against the suspect.”

Hmmm! After reading the entire story, I was reminded again that this is just another ‘Patrick Sawyer’ who knew he was already infected by Ebola but decided to still come to Nigeria, thereby infecting others.

The begging question now is, “Is Nigeria their grave yards?