Were it possible to prevent the death, yesterday morning, of Senator (Chief) Pius Akpo Ewherido, his State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, would have done so. As reported yesterday by News Express, Senator Ewherido, who represented Delta Central in the upper chamber of Nigeria’s parliament, died after a brief illness.

Information reaching News Express has it that Governor Uduaghan, an accomplished medical doctor, was at the National Hospital, Abuja, throughout the three days Chief Ewherido was on admission and frantically made efforts to save the life of the late Senator, who was said to have slumped while making a phone call in his (the Senator’s) Abuja residence.

“Governor Uduaghan,” according to a report in the blog FrontiersNews, “turned the hospital to his home, as he was with him for the three days the deceased spent in hospital. In fact, Uduaghan battled to save the late Senator’s life but to no avail. Unfortunately, attempt to fly Ewherido abroad also failed despite several efforts.”

The blog disclosed details of efforts made by Uduaghan in association with Chief Ewherido’s family and associates as well as the office of Senate President David Mark to bring in an Air Ambulance from Germany, Dubai and South Africa but all to no avail.

It quoted a source as saying that “the ambulance from Germany arrived and left due to delay in documentation. The ambulance left also because of another airlift of a patient in another country, which it has agreed to pick.”

According to the report, “The Dubai ambulance didn’t not come at all because it had been fully booked for all the days Senator Ewherido was in the hospital as a patient.

“However, the South Africa ambulance was to come but arrived Abuja exactly 30 minutes after Ewherido had passed on.”

A source close to Governor Uduaghan said: “Oga is devastated by Ewherido’s death, my brother. Oga has repeated said that since Ewherido left PDP for DPP, the Senator has never attacked or spoken badly about him whether directly or indirectly once. They were good friends until Ewherido died.”

Meanwhile, the elder brother, Rev. Fr Ewherido, who was part of the team that battled in vain to save the Senator’s life, has rubbished rumours that he had risen from the dead. He spoke against the backdrop of celebrations in their his home town Ewhu, following rumours of his younger brother’s resurrection. Said Rev. Fr Ewherido: “As a Catholic, I don’t believe in wishful thinking because we did everything humanly possible to save and revive him, but God know best while we failed.”

•Photo shows Governor Uduaghan (right) with late Sen. Ewherido.

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