Homicide: Drugs administered on deceased cannot induce abortion – Expert

A registered pharmacist yesterday testified before an FCT high court that the drugs administered by a chemist accused of murder through abortion cannot induce abortion.

Eze Linda, a pharmacist with DKT International Nigeria, was testifying as an expert witness in the trial of one Peter Cletus charged by the FCT Police Command with culpable homicide. She listed the drugs to include Metronidazole and Paracetamol. She said based on documented side effects of the drugs, they could not be used to induce abortion.

The police alleged that Cletus operated an illegal chemist and injected one Blessing Apenda with chemicals to abort her four-month-old pregnancy in 2012.

During the trial which started in 2013, the first prosecution witness, Dr. Chineye Emenike, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, told the court that investigation revealed that the deceased was about four months pregnant when she approached Cletus who injected her with some chemicals to induce the abortion.

She told the court that the chemical caused the death of the Fetus but that the placenta was retained which eventually caused the death of the deceased. She added that many persons in the community saw Cletus as a doctor whereas he was just a community health worker.

The second witness, Sgt Bulus Gitai, told the court that the case was reported to the police on August 16, 2012, by Samuel Hakeem, the elder brother of the deceased, who said that the deceased visited Cletus on August 13, 2012, for abortion. He said Cletus admitted that he carried out abortion on the deceased and that when she developed stomach pains, she was referred to another hospital. He said Cletus, however, denied committing the offence of culpable homicide.