The students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, have protested the death of their colleague, Ifeoluwa Ayodele, and what they described as the poor healthcare services in the school’s medical centre, which they alleged triggered the student’s death.

INTEGRITY NEWS gathered that the deceased student, a 100-level student of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, who was allegedly suffering from asthma, was rushed to the health centre on Wednesday for treatment but died in the consulting room.

While the circumstances surrounding Ayodele’s death are not ascertained, the angry students stormed the campus gate on Thursday in their numbers for a demonstration over the state of the university’s medical centre.

According to a student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the deceased’s treatment was delayed by the health officers on duty because he could not provide an identity card.

The student said this was part of the reasons why the protest was staged, to advocate a better and restructured healthcare system  on campus.

“The staff members’ negligence is irritating. They would not attend to you as fast as they should. The boy got there around 1 p.m.; they delayed him until 6:50 pm and he was proclaimed dead around 10 pm. It was because he did not take his ID card along, so they did not attend to him fast. What we are advocating is change.

“This makes it the third similar occurrence in three months as a result of their negligence and poor service delivery,” the student said.

When contacted the university’s Students’ Union President, Meshack Nwankwo, on Thursday, he said the protest was primarily about the poor service of the health centre and disclosed that his statement was based on the accounts of eyewitnesses and those who rushed the deceased to the hospital.

“Most of what we protested against was the poor service of the clinic. We just want a change. Ayodele was unconscious when he was taken to the medical centre and when they checked his pulse, they discovered that he had died.

“The protest was only for the health centre to be standardised and their services to be improved. I will not say the boy died due to negligence from the medical centre, but according to the person who took him there, the three nurses who were on duty attended to him. They later found out that he was dead,” Nwankwo said.

In a video clip obtained by our correspondent, the Vice Chancellor, Olusola Kehinde, while addressing the protesters, revealed that he came back from the health centre with a verifiable account.

Kehinde said the deceased was brought in dead, and the staff members tried to resuscitate him, but their efforts were abortive.

“His friends got to the health centre and when they saw the patient gasping for breath, they put a spoon in his mouth and poured water on him. When they took his corpse to the FMC, they told them that they should not have poured water on him.

“They brought him to the hospital, there were two nurses, a doctor, and the people there brought him into the doctor’s consulting room. I spoke to the matron and doctor this morning, and they said that they checked his pulse and found that there was no pulse; they checked his heartbeat, and there was no beat. The eye was already dilated, and immediately the doctor told the nurse that this was dead on arrival.”

The VC said the doctor told the nurse not to inform those who brought him because of shock, so they were told to get a card noting that after they left, they locked the consulting room door and tried to resuscitate the boy, but it was to no avail.

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