By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s Middle Belt Forum, has alleged foul play in the medical administration that led to the death of the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr Obadiah Mailafia at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada, on Sunday.
The group in a statement made available to newsmen, faulted the Nigerian health care system, alleging negligence and nonchalance on their reluctance to treat Mailafia.
According to the Forum, the deceased was ‘shabbily’ treated at the CBN hospital despite being a former deputy governor, and was only given oxygen after the intervention of a Senior Director.
It said the same circle was also replayed at the EHA clinics, where it also took senior management intervention for Mailafia to be admitted. He was later referred to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada, where “Dr Mailafia complained over his breathing problems and pleaded with the doctors to place him in a ventilator. The doctors flatly refused”.
“Even after the doctors declared Dr. Mailafia dead, foreign consultants who were brought into the matter through Dr Mailafia’s son that is living abroad, had directed a family member who is a medical professional, with the wife of the CBN Deputy Governor, to mount pressure on the chest of Dr. Mailafia for resuscitation and thereafter place him on a life support.
“The doctors in Gwagwalada refused all entreaties by the family members of Dr Mailafia to follow the advice of the foreign consultants, insisting that they have already pronounced him dead. Even when the wife could feel the pulse of her husband, the doctor flatly declared there was nothing they could do since they had already pronounced him dead,” part of the statement claimed.
Recall that in September 2020, Mailafia was the subject of attention, after he was invited by the Department of State Security (DSS) over his comment on radio that one of the governors in the North-West was sponsoring the activities of the bandits in the region.
His invitation by the Secret Police generated mixed-reactions which led him to backtrack his statement, saying he had no evidence to prove that an unnamed Nigerian governor was a sponsor of bandits killing Nigerians.
