Outcry over UNILAG student’s electrocution: This is our story - varsity’s clinic Oluchi was very influential among her peers - colleague FG fact-finding team visits the institution
Standing side-by side at the entrance of the popular New Hall Hostels within the premises of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, are two electric poles.
But out of the three supposedly high-tension cables being held by other poles around, the two poles could barely hold on to two. The third cable had fallen disastrously four days ago. That was the cable that got Oluchi Anekwe, the 20-year-old First Class student of UNILAG, electrocuted.
Expectedly, Anekwe’s death had generated spontaneous reactions from her colleagues who shut down all academic activities in the institution last Wednesday. It took the intervention of the ViceChancellor, Professor Rahman Bello, to bring the situation under control.
A 300-level female student of Accounting, Oluchi was said to have been electrocuted on Tuesday when the high-tension wire fell on her.
She was said to be in the company of her younger sister with whom she was returning from a Christian fellowship when the incident happened.
Oluchi was reportedly rushed to the school clinic but while the students claimed she was not promptly attended to, which they said led to her death, the clinic has now denied being responsible for her death.
She was brought in stonedead - clinic unfounded insinuations about our work. Some say our negligence led to the girl’s death. But to set the record straight, the girl had actually died before she was brought here. In fact, when she was brought in, she was rushed straight to the emergency unit.
“We conducted a quick examination on her and we discovered that her pulse rate was absent. The blood pressure was also not recordable. There was no respiratory effort. She was dilated and fixed.
“We saw that she also had burnt skin, perceived and charming of the premium and the toes of both feet and scalding of the shins were also noted. Cardiopulmory resuscitation was carried out and after 10 minutes it proved to us that she had actually died,” the source said.
The source further refuted the claim that the clinic was first asking for the late Oluchi’s identity card before being treated. She said the doctors and nurses were aware that students’ school fees already have in it medical bills which is also an health insurance scheme.
“It was not true that we demanded her identity before we treated her. It was after we had confirmed that she had died that one of us met with her sister and asked about Oluchi’s identity,” she said.
But for Martins Abiodun, the President UNILAG Students Union, the protest was not necessarily about perceived clinical failure but that of the university’s management who could not rein in the management of PHCN to fix the high-tension wires that passed through the school.
“It is still no retreat, no surrender. We have given the management three weeks to get PHCN to fix it’s cables within our campus or risk series of protest. We have petitioned Federal Government. We are also talking to our legal adviser and very soon we will be filing a suit against PHCN,” Abiodun said.
Yet, the students are not the only ones who have scores to settle with the electricity supplier. The varsity’s lecturers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), had also accused PHCN of culpability in the electrocution of Oluchi.
The Chairman, ASUU UNILAG Chapter, Dr Adelaja Adekoya, who spoke with our correspondent said it was regrettable that despite several overtures the school management had previously made to PHCN to correct haphazard placements of its cables within the school campus, the electricity provider still allows it’s negligence to claim the life of a student.
“Some hours ago (on Thursday) I saw some officials of PHCN trying to work on some of the cables. But is it not regrettable that they would not have come until a student died? We are aware that the cable that claimed the life of our student was not that of UNILAG because those ones are buried under-ground.
“The cable belongs to PHCN which is not even supplying power to UNILAG but places like Abule Oja, Onike and other neighbouring communities. So in this case, the PHCN is the culprit; they should be held liable,” Adekoya said.
At the Faculty of Business Administration, our correspondent met some colleagues of Oluchi holding a meeting on how to visit her family house, but when one of them was approached, he declined comment, saying many journalists have been reporting unfounded insuniation about the late student.
The line of stone-walling extended from students to lecturers. Mr Kayode Ajape, the Course Adviser to Oluchi and other 300-level Accounting students refused entreaties to say what he knew about Oluchi. He, however, directed the correspondent to meet with Head of Accounting Department (HOD).
“The person who gave you my phone number must surely have that of the HOD. So ask the person to furnish you with the HOD’s number,” Ajape said. But when the correspondent got to the HOD’s office, the Secretary said he was not around.
However, John James, a 400level student of Accounting who also doubles as the Internal Auditor of Students Union Executive, described the late Oluchi as attentive student who has great interpersonal communication skills and was quite influential among her peers.
“I used to take her and some of her colleagues in tutorial classes. Her participation in those classes were quite exceptional. I knew her to be someone with little or no time for social activities and non cademic events. And she was quite influential among her colleagues,” James said.
Though efforts to get members of the Federal Government delegation to the school proved abortive, the institution’s Deputy Registrar on Information, Olagoke Oke said UNILAG was willing to cooperate with members of the fact-finding committee in doing their job.
“Although, I have not met with them. What I can tell you, however, is that we are ever ready to assist them in the course of their investigation,” Oke said.