Following
the tragic death of a young university graduate who died while in NYSC
camp, new details have emerged about her final moments.
Fresh and chilling details have emerged of the last hours of
26-year-old Ifedolapo Oladepo, a first class Transport Management
graduate of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, who
died at the National Youth Service Corps camp in Kano State on Tuesday.
A Facebook post by the deceased’s elder sister, Oyeyode Abimbola
Inioluwa, gave an insight into a string of events which culminated in
the death of Ifedolapo at the camp clinic, where she allegedly suffered
neglect in the hands of medical officials.
According to Inioluwa, who is a nurse herself, having realised she
was not being attended to because officials thought she was just
pretending to be ill in order to avoid drills, Ifedolapo resorted to
placing calls to her.
“You called me five hours to your death and told me to start
coming as the NYSC doctors were not doing anything for you. They thought
you were pretending, you did not want to go for parade so they did not
attend to you. When you started calling people from home, they
eventually gave you an injection,” Inioluwa wrote in her eulogy to her sister.
But apparently, things went downhill immediately after that injection.
“You called me again that you noticed a lot of rashes on your
body, (you said) that I should speak with the doctor, who refused to
talk to me. You called five minutes later and told me your tongue was
twisting,” Inioluwa wrote.
It was learnt that when Ifedolapo’s situation seemed to deteriorate
after an injection she was given, officials at the camp clinic sent out
all her friends.
But Ifedolapo was said to have maintained contact with Inioluwa through the phone.
The deceased told her sister that she should help make an arrangement for a flight.
She said, “I called immediately(and) they told me Abuja flight
is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I told you to tell anybody in the
clinic that I am a nurse (so) they should allow me to speak with them.
“A male nurse took phone from you and told me you are having an
anaphylactic reaction and they would watch you for just one hour and
transfer you to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital but alas they did not
transfer you until five hours later when they noticed you were restless
and calling people at home.”
Inioluwa said she eventually went to the park along with
Ifedolapo’s younger sister, and boarded a bus to Kano so they could go
and pick her.
She said on their way, she placed a call to the clinic officials in
the Kano camp to beg them to take her sister to the teaching hospital.
According to her, rather than take her to the teaching hospital,
the deceased was taken to a general hospital at Gwazo, where she was
offered no treatment.
By that time, Inioluwa said Ifedolapo’s phone had been taken away. They claimed she needed to rest.
The last she heard from the deceased was at 5pm as their journey to Kano took 16 hours.
At 3am, she received the heart-breaking call that her younger sister had passed on.
“Without any doctor in the hospital to assist you, the only
nurse on duty told me she tried her best,her best of staying beside you
when death was taking you away because there was nothing to use. From
that 3am till I got to Kano, I was hoping it would only be a mix up
somewhere. (But) I got to Kano and met you at Aminu Kano Teaching
Hospital Mortuary,” Inioluwa said.
In another Facebook post by Ifedolapo’s younger sister, Kemisola Oladepo, she gave an insight into the anguish of the family.
“Death, why did you come into my household and take my sister
away? Ifedolapo, when death came knocking at your door, why did you open
for him?” she wrote.
According to Kemisola, she was at home when she heard Ifedolapo had
malaria and she placed a call to her. She said she prayed for her
sister over the phone before she was informed by their elder sister that
they needed to go to the hospital in Kano where she had been
transferred to.
“My sister begged and begged the doctor on duty to refer you to
the teaching hospital,but they kept saying you’re for the Federal
Government so they’ll have to watch you first before you were referred.
They gave you an unknown injection which immediately your body reacted
to, they begged for you to be taken to the teaching hospital, the
doctors turned off your phone and sent your friends out. You should have
held on for us to get there maybe it would have been better. We never
had the agreement that you’d leave so early, Ifedolapo.”
She described her elder sister as her best friend, one with whom she did everything.
But she placed the blame for the death of her sister squarely on the doorstop of the NYSC.
“I still didn’t believe it until NYSC brought your dead body
down home. We didn’t even get to see your body in the khaki and you were
buried in it. NYSC killed you with their negligence and stupid student
doctor that knows nothing, who gave you the injection, saw how your body
reacted to it and turned off your phones.”
The deceased was buried in Oshogbo on Thursday.
However, there is no official comment from the NYSC authorities over Ifedolapo’s death.
