Blow by Blow Account of Tony Adegelu, the driver
At about 4pm in the evening of Saturday 19th February, 2022, I was moving some scaffold iron (5 pieces) from the premises of my boss, HE Otunba Gbenga Daniel, to where they are kept.
I opened the gate myself, drove out and I alighted to close the gate behind me only for me to hear the officer shout ‘yeeeeh’. This same police officer was asleep when I walked through the police post earlier before I even carried the scaffold, drove past and exited the gate. I was surprised to hear his shout of yeeeh! and I noticed that the gate which was wide open was now half close.
I immediately asked him what happened and he said, “iron hit me”, I asked where and he showed me by raising up his cloth and I noticed a swell.
Immediately I dropped the scaffold and assisted him while he walked by himself into the same vehicle (Hilux). I then quickly rushed him to Twins Specialist Hospital that is within the Sagamu GRA and also put a call through to my GM and was directed to proceed.
On getting to Twins Specialist, the medical personnel opened his shirt and noticed the swell around his chest area and advised me to take him to OOUTH.
I drove out immediately and on my way to OOUTH, I called my GM to give her the situation report and also called my colleague for assistance and my colleague joined me in the vehicle and we both took him to OOUTH.
On getting to OOUTH, the medical team approached us even before we could enter the emergency ward, saying they have lots of patients yet to be attended to and no bed space.
I immediately called my GM to inform her of the situation of things and she asked me to go to Owokoniran specialist hospital, that she would make arrangement for us and call the station to notify them so as to meet us at the hospital.
By the time we got to Owokoniran Hospital, we met the medical team with stretcher at the entrance waiting for us and they carried him (Mr. Adeleke) into the emergency ward and began treatment immediately. This happened about 20-25 minutes after the incident.
After some time, I asked him how he was feeling and he said he was feeling better but for the slight pain he was still feeling in his chest.
Then, the medical team asked us to excuse them and it was at this point that some police officers (including the Station officer) came in and we all saw him and they spoke to him (Adeleke) after which we all left the ward to allow the medical team do their job.
As we stepped out of the ward (police officers, myself & my colleague), a woman who claimed to be his wife and an elderly man assumed to be his father approached us (my colleague & I) and asked us how he was faring and I told them exactly what the Doctor said to me, “that the situation is under control”.
We were all seated outside until when the Doctor called us again to inform us that (Adeleke) needs blood transfusion and at this point, I enquired from his wife if she could donate some blood and she responded by saying “she had just lost a set of twins and was just recovering”.
Before I could say anything further, my colleague rose up quickly and went straight to the hospital lab to donate some blood. While this was going on, Mr. Adeleke was still in the theatre, all this happened around 5pm or past 5pm.
After about 20-45mins, the Doctor came out and informed us that Mr. Adeleke had a fracture on his chest and some other medical terms which I didn’t understand but summarized to the fact that he needed to be moved to either OOUTH or Babcock Teaching Hospital.
I explained our earlier experience at OOUTH and he advised that he be moved to Babcock which we did in the company of his wife, elderly man, myself and my colleague who drove us all in the same vehicle.
On our way to Babcock, a police officer stopped us and told us that the Station Officer (SO) had directed that we report to the police station.
We drove to the police station as instructed and it wasn’t up to 5 minutes when we noticed that there was no concrete reason why we were asked to report there in the first instance. We then drove out of the station and headed to Babcock Teaching Hospital.
All along, he was talking to his wife and the elderly man and upon arrival at Babcock, he wanted to alight and said he could walk as he was fine but the medical crew came with a stretcher and he was taken in and treatment commenced immediately with a team of about 8 to 9 medical crew attending to him.
We were then asked to make the following payments which we did promptly without any delay.
1. N55,000 as admission & feeding deposit
2. N25,000 for oxygen
3. N4,500 for registration
4. N8,500 for blood test
5. N34,000 for blood
6. N2,500 routine Haematology
After about 1hour 45minutes, one of the doctors approached us and informed us (His wife, elder man, myself and colleague), that his blood had dropped to 18% and required transfusion and we were directed to the lab. When we got to the lab, we were also asked to donate blood which I volunteered since my colleague had done same at Owokoniran Hospital until the same Doctor sent for us again and it was at this point that he broke the sad news that officer Adeleke had passed away and this was at about 10pm.
I would like to mention that no police personnel followed us to Babcock but after the news of his passing had gotten to the station, the police called and asked me to report at the station but the doctor was writing their report.
After sometime, the DPO and some other police officers arrived at Babcock and we all left for the station (DPO, officers, the wife, elderly man, myself and colleague), the wife and elderly man rode with us back in the same vehicle that conveyed us from Owokoniran to Babcock back to the police station from where they departed.
