UNIPORT students protest colleague’s death

There was pandemonium Monday at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) over the mysterious death of Miss Kelechi Precious, a 200 level student of Theatre Art and Film Study who was said to have collapsed at her hostel bathroom and died after the University Teaching Hospital rejected her for lack of space.

Angered by the inability of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) to save the victim’s life instead of rejecting her on the excuse of lack of space, the students led by the Student Union Government (SUG) of the University went into protest, locking all the entrance gates to the school.

They also blocked the popular East-West road, including Ada-George Road and UNIPORT Aluu road leading to a serious traffic jam. Some of the school properties were also vandalized by the angry protesters who were chanting war song accusing UPTH of being responsible for the death of the victim.

As at the time of filing this report, the management of UPTH has started discharging patients at the hospital following the protest at the hospital leading to breakdown of law and order.

Some of the students who spoke to newsmen including SUG President accused the management of UPTH of killing their colleague for not giving her preference as student of the university in spite the lack of space complained about.

UNIPORT SUG President, Comrade Chuku Endwell said, the management of UPTH has failed the students, adding that for testing the anger of the students and for showing insensitivity over their life of one of them, the school at the moment will remain under lock.

Chuku said, “this is not college of Education, it is not a polytechnic or a secondary school, it is the famous university in the black Africa. The students were the reason for the establishment of UPTH, I don’t know why a student will be taking to the hospital and he or she would be rejected.

“This shows that our lives are no longer safe, by the Grace of God, SUG has summoned a meeting of all those concern and before the end of today we will reach a compromise especially the safety of our lives as students. If there is any one that should be giving a priority in the UPTH it is the students of UNIPORT.”

Narrating how the victim died, her closet roommate Miss Kainti Dauebimoere said; “She is in the same department with me and a roommate; we slept on the same bed on Sunday morning. We both woke up almost the same time, she went in to have her bath but later I heard a voice screaming.

“Then, I ran into the bathroom to know what was wrong with her but I saw her on the floor behaving like an asthmatic patient. Then, I ran back to the room to call other roommates. That was how we got a car around 5:45 am to take her to UPTH at accident and emergency ward. But the doctors who were there said there was no bed space. We pleaded that we are going to use the car as her bed, but they refused.

“When we discovered that the UPTH was not able to assist we took her to fountain hospital at Ozuoba, the doctor there told us that we should look for her relative. He then directed us to take her back to the UPTH but we told him that we are just coming from there. We were again directed to Ebonyi Hospital where the doctor confirmed that there was no live in her.

“Then we took her to Military hospital, when we got there they said she died three hours ago, but they advice us to make an entry to any police station. After making an entry at Choba Police station, we took her corpse to UPTH mortuary. The management of UPTH who said there was no space now accepted her corpse at their mortuary.”

Responding, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital Prof. Aaron Ajule said there was no space when the victim was brought to the hospital, noting that the hospital cannot reject an outsider not to talk of a student of the university.

“It was not an issue of reject; we cannot reject any body outside the campus not to talk of student of the university. When the hospital is filled it is filled, we cannot ask somebody to go down to accept another. We sympathised with the victim’s family and the University over what happened.

“The information I am giving you now is still going to be investigated and confirmed, we have setup a panel to investigate the issue. They came here and we told them there was no space at the time they came and when the lady died they said it was UPTH that killed her. We have always told the people that UPTH is over subscribed.”

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