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Parents Urge Colleagues To Fight For Electrocuted UNILAG Student (PICTURED)

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Were it not for divine intervention, Chief Basil Anikwe and his family of 133, Samuel Ekunola Street, off Ago Palace Way Okota, Isolo Lagos would have lost two of her daughters namely; Oluchi and Obianuju in the ill-fated electrocution saga at the University of Lagos campus on Tuesday.

But while Uju, a medical student of the university survived the ugly incident with minor injuries, her elder sister, Oluchi, a 300-level first class student of the Accountancy Department of the university was not all that lucky as she gave up the ghost. This was after she was allegedly unattended to quickly when she was rushed to the school’s medical centre.

When The Guardian visited the family house in Lagos yesterday, the atmosphere was palpably sad. Sympathisers, relations and friends were seen trooping in and out of the two-storey building to commiserate with them.

PHOTOS: Girl Next Door: The Late Oluchi Anekwe (Click on any image to enlarge)

Speaking in an emotion-laden voice, Uju said she was together with Oluchi on their way to her hostel when the high-tension wire snapped and fell on both of them.

Her words: “I came from the medical school at Idi Araba to see my sister on that ill-fated Tuesday. She came out from the church where she had gone for evening mass. We were together walking to her hostel when the high-tension cable cut and fell on us. We fell down separately.

“When I managed to stand up, I saw my sister on the other side staring at me. I screamed and appealed to passersby to assist. Initially, they were reluctant to come to our rescue.

“But one guy summoned courage and rushed to my sister and pulled her up. She was taken to the school’s medical centre where the medical personnel on duty, instead of attending to her urgently, started asking for her identity card. At that point her eyes were open. It was only her left hand that was stiff.”

Parents of the deceased, Mr. Basil Anekwe and her wife, Augustina, were sitting in the parlour weeping profusely. They were surrounded and consoled by family friends, and relatives.

According to Mrs Anekwe, the demise of Oluchi who left home on Sunday back to school, came to them as shock.

“We could not believe it initially because she was never ill, neither did we have any premonition of her untimely demise. My brother, you can see what Unilag has done to me,” she bemoaned.

Also yesterday, students of the Accounting Department of the university, some of their lecturers and student union leaders, paid condolence visit to the Anekwe family around 12.05pm.

Speaking on behalf of the delegation, a lecturer in the department, Mr. Damilola Fagboro described Oluchi’s untimely demise as a colossal loss to the institution, the academic community and the human race.

Fagboro said: “Oluchi was a genius. She had a date with history considering her outstanding academic performance which placed her at first class. You know what it means being a first class student at Unilag. No amount of words can describe the stuff Oluchi was made of.”

In his remarks, Mr. John Ike who is Oluchi’s maternal uncle thanked the delegation, and expressed the family’s sadness on how the school’s medical centre handled late Oluchi’s case when she was rushed there alive.

“If not negligence, how can the medical personnel at the centre be asking for identity card of a patient in dire need of urgent medical attention? Well, we have handed everything over to God because he knows why,” Ike said.

While addressing the delegation, Oluchi’s father, Mr Anikwe began by repeatedly and emotionally calling Oluchi, asking: “Oluchi, where are you? Your course mates are here, where are you? Ohh, they are looking for you.”

The remarks drew tears from her course mates, siblings, and sympathisers who consoled the man by holding him. Mr. Anikwe urged the students to fight for Oluchi, stressing that nobody knows who is next.

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