CCTV footage from Garki Hospital, Abuja, has shown that Nkechi Igwetu, the National Youth Service Corps member shot by a police officer in Abuja, was taken in for treatment almost immediately she arrived the hospital premises.
In a tweet on Friday, one of the medical doctors at the hospital, Etin-osa Imagbenikaro, said there are CCTV cameras at the emergency unit of the hospital to show when the patient arrived the hospital and was taken in for treatment.
We have CCTV cameras at the entrance to the emergency unit that would show when the patient arrived and when she was taken in.
The hospital records are there to show the documentations of her status when she got to the hospital and all that was done for her..
— Dr Etin-osa Imagbenikaro (@etinmagbe) July 6, 2018
When asked for a copy of the footage, the communications officer of the hospital, Tunde (who refused to disclose his surname) refused to release it but allowed a PREMIUM TIMES reporter view the footage at the security unit of the hospital.
The footage showed that at 3:12 a.m. on July 4, about the same time Ms. Igwetu was said to have arrived Garki Hospital, a vehicle arrived the premises of the Accidents and Emergency unit of the hospital.
On arrival, someone ran out of the car into the building and met two people, identified as a nurse and a doctor on duty by the communications officer. By 3:13 a.m., the doctor took her gloves and went outside to look at the situation.
Although the activity outside the building was not very clear as the car had its headlights on, footage from inside the building showed that the same person who went out came back into the building within a minute and by 3:14 a.m., followed by a nurse, took out a stretcher.
By 3:15 a.m., accompanied by the nurse and two men, the doctor returned into the building with a patient on the stretcher. The stretcher was immediately moved into a room identified as the Trauma Room in the accidents and emergency arm of the hospital.
Between 3:16 a.m. and 3:19 a.m., the doctor and some nurses kept rushing in and out of and carrying equipment into the Trauma Room.
Also, one of the two men who accompanied the patient to the hospital, entered into the Trauma Room at about 3:17 a.m. and was there a while until he came out and left the building with the other man.
During this period, there were no police officers at the scene.
At 3:21 a.m., the CCTV footage showed two policemen whom the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the hospital, Lawrence Laabe, identified as officers stationed in the hospital, accompanying the two men back into the hospital.
One of the men went into the Trauma Room briefly, came out and then left the building.
Within the same minute, the CCTV footage outside the building, showed that the two men, who accompanied the victim to the hospital, were outside with the police officers stationed at the hospital, discussing.
By 3:26 a.m., the woman identified by the communications officer as the doctor was still in the Trauma Room. She came out briefly at about 3.29 a.m., and two other women also identified by the communications officer as doctors came into the room as well.
The footage within the accidents and emergency unit of the building was limited to the corridor as activities within the Trauma Room were not covered.
Although the footage showed that at least three medical personnel were inside the Trauma Room since the patient arrived (some came out to pick things and went back in almost immediately), PREMIUM TIMES cannot tell what exactly happened within the room.
The footage also showed that external police officers arrived the hospital at 4 a.m. in a white pickup and entered the building at 4:05 a.m. to have discussions with the men and the first doctor who attended to the patient.
After watching the footage for about an hour and 20 minutes, our reporter was taken to the Trauma Room to see what it looked like.
The room is equipped with emergency tools and a number of beds. Altogether, about eight beds were in the accidents and emergency unit of the hospital.
In the official statement of the hospital released on Thursday, it was said that Ms. Igwetu was brought in to the hospital in a precarious state.
Mrs. Imagbenikaro also told our reporter that the deceased did not pass on until after all efforts had been made to save her life three hours after she was brought in.
On Friday, the police announced the arrest and dismissal of the policeman who allegedly killed Ms Igwetu. She was shot close to Cedi Plaza in Central Area, Abuja, at about 3:00 a.m.
According to the sister of the deceased, Chinenye Igwetu, Nkechi was heading out to a party on Wednesday morning with her male friends when officers opened fire on the vehicle they were riding in, leaving her critically wounded.
When giving their side of the story, the police commissioner, Sadiq Bello, said “It was alleged that the lady, one Angela Igwetu stood up and brought out her head through the sunroof of a Toyota Camry car shouting and calling for help that she was kidnapped.”