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LAYI OLANREWAJU, Ilorin
The Management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) yesterday suspended one of it’s Professors, Professor Alakija Kazeem Salami over unethical conduct that led to the death of a suspected coronavirus infected patient at the hospital.
It was earlier gathered that the deceased Alhaji Muideen Obanimomo flew into Nigeria of Friday, 20th March, 2020, through Lagos and immediately went into isolation upon his arrival having noticed strange feelings.
The Professor of Medicine (Pulmonology), who heads the pulmonology unit in internal medicine of UITH, was said to have facilitated the admission of Obanimomo and discharge after the patient had died without following due process.
Salami was alleged to have been the family doctor of the deceased who also doubles as his friend as they are both indigene of offa. Thus, influenced the process without proper health record of the deceased as it was also released for immediate burial according to Islamic rites without a coronavirus test.
Revealing how Salami allegedly exposed Kwara State to Coronavirus, one of the affected medical personal who spoke from self-isolation on the condition of anonymity, said “They brought the deceased in requiring urgent attention, when asked for the health history of the deceased we were refused access to it by Professor Salami.
“Professor Salami, who is our respected oga facilitated the admission of the deceased. He was brought in with Professor’s influence. We tried to resuscitate him until he gave up the ghost.
“When he died Professor Salami, pulled all strings to ensure that the corpse was immediately released for burial. This raised suspicions, as we have started suspecting foul play.
“We requested for the medical history of the deceased but we were turned down by the Professor, saying he died of food poisoning and nothing more. Although, the medical personnel knew with the symptoms seen, it couldn’t have been food poisoning but we couldn’t press further because he was our Oga.
“However when we started hearing rumors of a certain death at our hospital we knew they were talking about the same incident we handled and we grew scared.
“Not until we were directed to evacuate the emergency unit, and all patients wheeled out and the unit shut down for immediate fumigation did we realise that professor Salami wasn’t entirely truthful to us.”
Meanwhile, UITH in a statement issued on Monday, 6th April, 2020 by its Director of Administration, David Odaibo, has setup a 10-member investigation committee to look into the case.
