‘Condom infection’: CSOs demand probe of FCT pupil’s death

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has demanded an intense probe of the circumstances surrounding the death of the 14-year-old student of the Premiere Academy in Lugbe, Abuja.

The coalition includes Save the Child Foundation, Eziodu Initiative for Sustainable Environmental Development, Courageous Girls Initiative, Sunbliss Foundation, Greensphere Initiative, Participatory Initiative for Peace and Development, Lizdon Foundation, Women Initiative for Value Empowerment and Manpower Development Foundation as well as White Angels Foundation.

Others are Greenalive Initiative, Chikasi Youth Foundation, Phew Children Foundation, Centre for Cultural Heritage and Tourism Development, and Bethel Rights Foundation.

TheCable Lifestyle had in June reported how the student passed away in controversial circumstances while she was hospitalised at Queens Clinic, Abuja.

Vihimga Akpagher, the deceased’s mother, had alleged that her daughter died from an infection after a condom was found in her private parts.

In a statement, Deacon Okezi Odugala, the coalition’s coordinator, said there are still several unanswered questions on what led to the student’s death.

The statement also said relevant authorities must investigate the teenager’s last 48 hours before she passed away, adding that the case can no longer be swept under the carpet.

According to the coalition, the demand became imperative in the wake of the controversies trailing the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a student of Dowen College.

It said contrary to what was out there in the public space, there has been little interrogation of the medical procedure at the Queens Clinic in Abuja, where the girl was rushed to for treatment.

The coalition said it was inappropriate to run with the claim by the clinic that it extracted a “decayed used condom” from Akpagher’s body without adequate proof to substantiate the claim.

The coalition called for careful scrutiny of the medical procedures undertaken at the clinic from the moment the patient was brought in up till the time of her death.

“From the information made available to public by the school, Keren was Type 1 diabetic, and was on daily insulin shots under careful management by the school’s medical personnel,” the statement read.

“When she left the custody of the school into the custody of her mother, her blood sugar was normal at 114mg/dl.

“Forty-eight hours later, under her mother’s custody, her blood sugar had spiked to an almost terminal 435.6mg/dl.

“There is abundant evidence from eye witness testimony that the doctor at Queens Clinic decided to sedate a delirious Keren, a clear breach of the treatment protocol for raging hyperglycaemia. Doctors we spoke to agree that sedating a patient at 435.6 mg/dl is like a fatal shot in the head.”

The coalition also demanded an interrogation of the student’s mother over the claim that her daughter left the school hale and hearty for about 48 hours before her blood sugar started to spike.

The coalition raised concern that the police have not asked Queens Clinic to show evidence of the condom claim in the course of its investigation.

It also called on the police to make the result of its investigation public and release the report of the autopsy conducted on the remains of the student.