By Abraham Olatokunbo
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations has called for more intense investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death in June 2021 of Keren Akpagher, a 14-year-old student of the Premiere Academy, Abuja.
The call comes amid the raging controversy over the death of a student of Dowen College, Lagos, Sylvester Oromoni Jnr.
The coalition of CSOs said the many unanswered questions about the circumstances of Akpagher’s death, especially her final 48 hours, can no longer be swept under the carpet.
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 include Greenalive Initiative, Chikasi Youth Foundation, Phew Children Foundation, Centre for Cultural Heritage and Tourism Development and Bethel Rights Foundation.
According to the coalition’s Coordinator, Deacon Okezi Odugala, there still exists several unanswered questions on the circumstances surrounding the death of Akpagher.
Odugala pointed out that contrary to what was out there in the public space, there has been little interrogation of the medical procedure at the Queens Clinic, where Akpagher was rushed to under medical emergency by her family.
The Coordinator said it was inappropriate to run with the claim by the clinic that it extracted a “decayed used condom” from Akpagher’s body, without proof because as the aphorism goes, he who alleges must also prove.
The coalition called for a 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, instead of specious and uncorroborated claims about a condom.
According to the Coordinator, the way and manner the medical personnel have evaded comments from the media and attention of the public obviously suggests that they have something to hide.
Odugala said: “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.
“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.”
Odugala further questioned the competence of the medical team that attended to the late student during her emergency, stating: “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 further called to question the role of the student’s mother, Vivian Akpagher, given the recorded evidence that her daughter left the school hale and hearty over 48 hours previously.
It said: “It is necessary to find out from Mrs Akpagher what happened to her daughter’s regimen of daily insulin intake after she got home.
“It is also important to inquire from her why she bluntly rejected all entreaties by the visiting Premiere Academy medical team to move the innocent child from a clearly incompetent clinic, when it became apparent that Queens Clinic neither had the equipment nor the capacity to manage a case like Keren’s.”
The coalition declared its concern that the Police have not compelled Queens Clinic to show evidence of the condom claim in the course of its investigation nor was it availed the autopsy team.
It therefore called on the Police to make the result of its investigation public as well as release the report of the autopsy.
