The Police have concluded investigation into the death of a youth corps member, Ifedapo Oladepo, who died at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation camp in Kano last November.
Oladepo, a First Class graduate of Transport Management and a member of the NYSC ‘batch B’, died during the scheme’s orientation programme in Kano on November 29, 2016.
Outcome of the investigation shows that NYSC was responsible for the demise of the corps member.
According to preliminary report of the probe, NYSC’s failure to evacuate the youth corps member to the General Hospital, Gwazo, Kano, was the reason for the death.
Punch quoted a source, familiar with the probe being conducted by the Special Investigation Panel headed by a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Ali Amodu, that the investigators relied on the medical files of the deceased, including evidence from the NYSC officials and the medical personnel at the hospital where Oladepo was certified dead.
The investigation, he said, found that the deceased was not properly diagnosed before she was given injections and drugs by a youth corps doctor in the orientation camp in Kano.
“Her situation had become unmanageable before she was brought to the General Hospital and that was why they couldn’t manage her any longer.
“She was initially treated for malaria, but the fact is that she wasn’t properly diagnosed. Instead of a proper diagnosis, they were treating her for malaria,” the source explained.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had directed the SIP to carry out an investigation into the death of Oladepo following a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the circumstances surrounding the incident be unravelled.
It was gathered that the Amodu-led investigators interrogated the Chief Medical Officer, Kano General Hospital, Gwazo, as well as the corps doctor that first treated Oladepo.
The source stated, “The report of the investigation is being finalised now, but from all indications, there is negligence on the part of the NYSC. They (officials) did not have an experienced doctor in the camp’s clinic. It was a youth corps doctor who treated the girl, she was left in the care of a corps doctor.
“That shouldn’t have been the case; an experienced doctor should have treated the girl, not a corps doctor.
“The girl was neglected. From all indications, if the girl had been moved on time to the General Hospital, it would have been a different story.
“They were trying to manage the girl by themselves and her condition deteriorated before they put her in the vehicle on a very bad road. The girl went through the roughest road of her life before she got to the General Hospital.
“The NYSC cannot absolve itself of blame in this case. All the files and reports were thoroughly analysed. It was a case of negligence and the panel established this.”
The father of the deceased, Mr. Wale Oladepo, said the panel set up to investigate the case had yet to contact him.
He said, “Nobody has contacted me. That is what I can say. However, somebody called me and said he was a retired AIG. He called from Abuja and asked me some questions, but he dropped the call when I asked him if he would not come down to Osogbo to investigate the case.’’
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