Protests in UI over death of ‘asthmatic’ student

A student of the University of Ibadan died at the Independence Hall on Wednesday at the end of Barcelona’s thrashing of Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.

Mayowa Alaran, the 200 level student of human kinetics, faculty of education, was said to have had an asthmatic attack after suffering suffocation at the football viewing centre.

He was immediately rushed to the university health service, better known as ‘Jaja’, where his death was attributed to the insistence of officials that the victim should produce his health registration card before he would be attended to.

TheCable spoke to some students who did not want to be named.

“He suffocated during the match, due to the absence of electricity, a problem that has characterised the past week,” one student said.

“He was rushed to Jaja clinic where he was not attended to on time, even though it was an emergency. They were asking for his card number rather than treating him. Sadly, he died.”

Another student told TheCable that there was a possibility he could have died before he got to the clinic.

“Asthmatic attacks, in some cases, often lead to death in less than five minutes, and they couldn’t have gotten to Jaja in five minutes.

“There is possibly going to be another bout of demonstrations this morning – I just got to the hall, too, and the gate was locked to exits.”

Isaac Adewole, vice chancellor of the university, told TheCable that the said student was dead on arrival.

“An unfortunate incident happened in the university; the student was brought in dead. We are grieving and we would not want to comment on this more than that for now,” he said.

“We pray such does not happen again.”

UI students then embarked on a protest to express their grievances about “the lackadaisical attitude of the university heath workers”.

Earlier on the same Wednesday, the university health service was reported to have saved the life of a convulsing lady from Queen Idia hall, who was rushed in in like manner.