On the night of Tuesday, September 8, between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., Oluchi Anekwe, a 300-level Accounting student at the University of Lagos, was walking towards her hostel at New Hall when an electric cable fell on her.
New Hall is the university’s busiest area, especially in the evenings, being home to three female hostels (Makama Bida, Madam Tinubu, and Fagunwa) and two male hostels (Shodeinde and Eni Njoku). The school’s main shopping complex is directly opposite, while the worship centres – the mosque and the two chapels – are only a few metres away.
Anekwe’s tragedy was witnessed by many students, some of them her close friends and classmates. At the students’ protest on Wednesday, one of her friends who identified herself as Damilola said she was part of the team that took her to the Medical Centre.
“She died in my arms,” she said visibly agitated. “I don’t know what to say. This is so unfair. Something has to be done. We cannot take this. She could have been saved; they were asking us for her ID card at the Medical Centre. How could they be asking for her ID card when they saw it was an emergency? They were delaying us, asking us to go and get her ID card. Five minutes is enough to save a life; if she was not a UNILAG student, would we all have gathered there? And even if she was not a UNILAG student, is it not human life we are talking about?”
However, officials at the Medical Centre who spoke with Saturday Tribune on Thursday denied that they requested Anekwe’s identity card.
“I don’t see any truth in what they are saying,” Mohammed Rasaq Adeola, a Principal Radiographer at the Medical Centre, said. “There is no way we could have asked for her identity card before attending to her, because there is the National Health Insurance Scheme that is designed to take care of such emergencies. Again, whenever it comes to emergencies, we consider the person’s life first.”
A high-flying student
At a corner of the main gate, during the protest on Wednesday, a group of female students who said they were all Anekwe’s classmates stood together. They took turns to share their thoughts.
“Many of us did not know until past midnight,” one of them told Saturday Tribune. “It was about 2.am. You know… we, students, don’t go to bed early. On the group chat for our class, known as Impact Class, we got a message from a classmate who is vying for the position of ULSU Sports Secretary. He said that the person that the cable fell on was our classmate, and we said ‘No, it can’t be.’ That was when we began to run around asking questions, and we soon confirmed that it was truly Oluchi Anekwe.”
Another student said she and Oluchi were admitted through the University of Lagos Foundation Programme:
“Oluchi was my friend; we both came in through Diploma (Foundation Programme); and you know Diploma is not easy. We had to pay almost N700, 000 in all; if you add other things it will be close to N1 million. She was one of the best students in our class both at diploma and now. She had ICAN ATS III exams scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week. She was indoors all day; she only left the hostel when her sister came to see her from Idi-Araba campus; she planned afterwards to go to Amphitheatre opposite the chapel for her Fellowship. She doesn’t really live on campus; she comes to the hostel often just to read and then spend a few days. In this particular case, she came because we were supposed to have an early morning class today (Wednesday). Now, look at all of us here… there is no class.”
However, a large part of their ire was directed toward their Course Adviser (300-Level, Accounting) who allegedly told them that the death of Anekwe was not “enough reason” for them to protest or boycott lectures.
“When we got to the faculty this morning (Wednesday), we told our Course Adviser that our classmate was dead, and that we could not have our lectures today. He said it was not ‘enough reason’, because when someone is dead, it is the end, and life should continue. That was what made us very angry. We felt like beating him up. This is the third time this session that someone has died in our class; but the other two died outside the school.”
Attempts made to speak with the Course Adviser and the Head of Department of Accounting did not bear fruit. A woman at the Secretary’s office told Saturday Tribune that it was “too early” for them to attend to journalists.
“The girl just died yesterday, and you are already here,” she said. “We need time to meet as a department; the HOD has not yet met with the lecturers about it.”
PHCN vs. UNILAG
Even though the protesting students blamed the school authorities for what they saw as a failure of leadership and little regard for human life, the management of the university has stressed that the cable belonged to “PHCN”.
According to a statement signed by the Deputy Registrar (Information), Mr Olagoke Oke, the cable did not even supply power to the university.
A part of the statement read: “A PHCN overhead cable coming from the PHCN substation Akoka and supplying power to Onike, which passes overhead at New Hall, snapped. Unfortunately, a female student of the University was passing through the gate and was hit by the falling cable.
“The PHCN overhead cable does not supply power to nor belong to the University. The University alerted PHCN to de-energize the cable immediately to prevent further loss of life.”
However, the leadership of the University of Lagos Students’ Union (ULSU) disagreed.
“The management has said it belongs to PHCN; we have not heard from PHCN,” ULSU President, Mr Abiodun Martin, told Saturday Tribune. “What we are saying is that it happened on this campus, and this campus belongs to the University of Lagos.”
May Her Soul Rest In Peace.
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