A PANEL set up by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesome Wike, has revealed that a victim of ‘one chance’ attack in Abuja, Greatness Olorunfemi, was brought to the Maitama Hospital dead.
Olorunfemi reportedly died at the hospital, where she was rushed after the attack along the Katampe-Kubwa Road in September this year.
The panel said contrary to social media reports, Olorunfemi was not abandoned by the facility.
A viral video on Wednesday, September 27, showed Olorunfemi by the roadside along the Maitama-Kubwa expressway after reportedly being pushed out of a vehicle by a suspected criminal gang disguised as commercial drivers.
According to an audio tape from the eye witness that also went viral, passersby had taken her to the Maitama District Hospital for treatment but was rejected by the hospital staff.
“All of us, about 15 vehicles, we all drove down there, and then she was still alive. The Maitama General Hospital refused to receive her and said they wanted a Police report before they could attend to her,” the eyewitness narrated.
He stated that the hospital staff were informed of an extant law that criminalises the demand of a Police report before treatment is provided for patients with gunshot or stab wounds. However, despite efforts to convince the staff to accept her, he claimed Olorunfemi was denied treatment until she bled to death.
A social media user on X, with username @Nwaadaz, who claimed to be friends with the deceased, also posted a video of the victim with a caption accusing the hospital staff of neglect.
“Maitama General Hospital refused to attend to my friend who was stabbed by a one-chance driver in Abuja. They allowed her to bleed to death and locked the emergency ward against her because she didn’t have a Police report!! Nigeria has failed Greatness!!” she tweeted.
Olurunfemi was reportedly thrown out of a fast-moving vehicle by her attackers on September 26 while on her way from work.
On October 4, the FCT Minister constituted a nine-member panel to investigate the death.
Two months later, the panel, while presenting its findings on Wednesday, December 6, at the Abuja Property Development Company, stated that Olurunfemi was taken into the hospital dead based on investigations.
Mohammed, the president of the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria, said contrary to what had been claimed on social media, no Police report was requested.
He said there was no sign of life in the video depicting the late Olorunfemi sitting.
He clarified that she was strangled to death and that, in contrast to what some people on social media had said, she did not bleed to death because there were just a few little bloodstains on her body.
However, he was silent on how the deceased’s body was handled after she passed on, as evidenced by the delay in putting the body in the morgue.
The panel observed that the Maitama General Hospital staff did not follow professional standards when she was evaluated in the hospital’s car and public areas rather than being placed on a stretcher and given private treatment in an accident and emergency (A&E) section.
It demanded a thorough autopsy to determine the full cause of her death and urged the Police to launch a formal investigation into the incident.
It also restated the legal requirement that hospitals treat all emergency cases without first requesting a Police report since they must preserve lives.
The panel explained further that Olorunfemi received medical attention forty seconds after her body was transported to the hospital at 8:35:10 p.m.
Based on the CCTV camera evidence, the panel stated that the victim received care at 8:35:50, 8:39:00, and 8:41:00 p.m., respectively.
The panel regretted how the deceased body was handled at the hospital, emphasising that all corpses should be treated with respect.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance