The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the weekend condemned the management of the University of Benin, Edo state following the death of Austin Okafor, a 300 level student of the department of Entrepreneurship, faculty of Management Sciences.

NANS said in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Danielson Bamidele Akpan, GCNS that for the lackadaisical attitude of the management and the pathetic condition of the health centre, Okafor may have survived.

The statement said the departed student was left unattended to for hours after being rushed to the school health centre on October 2.

“Despite the urgency of the situation and the sensitive nature of the case, Okafor was conveyed in an ambulance with no life support facilities to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), having been referred there.

“As if that wasn't bad enough, the ambulance conveying him was made to stop at the institution’s Division of Student Affairs to perfect some unnecessary formalities.

“However, after another 30 minutes of delay at the Student Affairs Division, Okafor died while UBTH doctors were struggling to resuscitate him at the Accident and Emergency Ward after another 15 minutes of negligence and insensitivity on the part of the hospital management.

“NANS frowns at the situation and condemn in totality, the way and manner the University and Hospital management handled this case. We condole with the department, parents, families and friends of the deceased student. The family of the deceased must not be left in this solitude to carry the burdens of this irreparable loss.

“It is so pathetic that due to the insensitivity of the University of Benin Health Care Centre, we lost another promising youngster.

“Among the responsibilities of the school management is to protect and advance the interests of her students which include the delivery of high-quality health care services which unfortunately we are not enjoying even as students.

“We hereby call on the school management to immediately set up a committee to investigate the evitable death of Okafor who obviously happened to be a victim of our failed system. Failure to do so, NANS will have no other option than to relocate her national secretariat to UNIBEN from UNIJOS where it has been temporarily relocated to following the recent killings of students.

“It is also necessary and as a matter of urgency that a state of emergency should be declared on health care service in our tertiary institutions,” the statement read.

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