Garki Hospital speaks on Abuja NYSC member shot dead allegedly by police officers

The Garki General Hospital, Abuja has reacted to claims that it denied corps member, Nkechi Igwetu, treatment after being shot by a police officer.

A statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, signed by the hospital’s Medical Director, Essen Nyomudim, described the allegations as false and malicious.

Friends of the deceased on the internet, Wednesday, shared a picture of Miss Igwetu as well as allegations that medical personnel at the General Hospital refused to attend to her until she bled to death.

One of such accounts said the hospital initially declined to treat her for the gunshot wounds until a directive from the police to do so was given, even though some police officers who evacuated her to the hospital were present.

Another account said the hospital demanded N50,000 before treating Ms. Igwetu.

In repose to the claims, the statement said, “the purported complicity of Garki Hospital Abuja in denying Miss Igwetu treatment and allowing her to bleed to death while asking for a police report is false and malicious.

“Garki Hospital Abuja does not demand for Police report before attending to Trauma Patients at her Accident and Emergency department.

“Garki Hospital does not insist on payment before stabilising trauma patients. It is a tradition that we do not compromise”.

Giving the hospital’s account of the sad incident, the statement said “Miss Igwetu was brought to our hospital at about 3.05 a.m. on July 4 in a very precarious condition. The doctors on duty at the Accident and Emergency including the consultant surgeon on call battled to save her life by providing care including blood transfusions and limited surgery.

“This was done even before any form of payment could be made. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to save her life, she did not make it.”

The hospital also demanded the immediate rebuttal of all reports of allegations that the hospital denied the deceased treatment from all mainstream and social media.

It further demanded a published apology within 48 hours from media platforms that published the allegations.

“Failure to publish the required rebuttals and apology would compel Garki Hospital to take legal actions against such media houses and blogs including their promoters.

“We also encourage the media to always take a step further by confirming the information they are fed with before broadcasting it to the general public,” the statement said.

Garki Hospital also sympathised with the family of the deceased, the NYSC and Nigeria as a whole on the loss of Ms Igwetu and reassured all Nigerians of the hospital’s commitment to saving lives.

The hospital declined to state the cause of death, saying this can only be determined by a postmortem examination.

Nkechi Igwetu was heading to a party early Wednesday morning with her male friends when officers opened fire at the vehicle they were riding in, leaving her critically wounded, Chinenye Igewtu, the deceased’s sister, said.

Although she was not a witness to the incident, she said she got the details from her sister’s male friends when she arrived at the police station.

She also got more information from police officers, she said.

Chinenye told PREMIUM TIMES that the incident occurred around Cedi Plaza in Central Area of Abuja at about 3:00 a.m.

She said her sister was evacuated to General Hospital, Garki, but passed on soon after arriving at the hospital.

When contacted on Wednesday night, FCT Police Command spokesperson, Anjuguri Manzah, said the matter was under investigation.

“We are investigating the matter” he said, declining to volunteer any more details of the incident.

The body of the deceased is currently at the Garki Hospital morgue.