Long faces, broken spirits and an atmosphere filled with grief welcome
you to the home. Tucked in a reserved part of Okota, a sprawling
suburb in the heart of Lagos, the neighbourhood has perhaps seen more
visitors over the last few days than at any previous time in its
history. Since the tragic demise of Oluchi Anekwe, a 300 level
accounting student of the University of Lagos who was electrocuted on
campus last Tuesday evening, the flow of sympathisers has swelled by
the minute – men, women and even children – everybody has turned up to
commiserate with the household. It is the most difficult period for
the Anekwes, a catholic family from Aku in Igbo-Etiti Local Government
Area of Enugu State.
A promising, God-loving and talented young lady, Oluchi had everything
going for her. At barely 22 (she could have attained that age on
December 5); she was on top of her academic and social life. A high
flying student of accounting with an envious grade in school – first
class – her dream of becoming a renowned investment banker in the
future was gradually taking shape. To further cement her future and
enrich her resume, Oluchi was already preparing to sit for the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria exams later this month
in her bid to become chartered before graduating from the university.
Such was her love for excellence. But last Tuesday, all those lofty
dreams went up in flames after tragedy struck. Oluchi would now be
buried on the week she was supposed to sit for the ICAN test – an
ambition she had pursued with unflinching passion and determination in
recent months.
"It still feels like a dream that my daughter is gone," Chief Basil
Anekwe, her distraught father told our correspondent on Thursday at
the family home. Days of shedding tears had taken toll on him. His
eyes were a bit swollen while his skin had become unusually pale – a
testament to how heartbroken his daughter's tragic and sudden demise
had left him.
"She was the star of the family," he continued. "Always striving to
become the best at her academics. Even as a first class student, she
wasn't satisfied, she wanted to break records and was already
discussing where she would prefer to do her Master's degree. That was
who Oluchi was.
"I remember that last Sunday, she called and asked me to send her some
money since her elder sister, Nkem, was staying with her at her
apartment behind the school because of the distance from Okota to her
office. I promised that she was going to get some money from me by
Wednesday at most. So, on Wednesday morning that I had planned to go
send her the money, I got a call from my eldest son that Oluchi was
very ill and that she was in the hospital. Suddenly, I saw my driver
show up at my apartment in Ogun State where I work; I was surprised to
see him. Not quite long, my son called and told me that he had sent
the driver to pick me to come to Lagos as a result of Oluchi's
sickness. At that point, I became restless. The driver didn't utter a
word to me.
"When I finally got to Lagos, I asked to be taken to the hospital to
see her. I insisted on seeing her at the hospital because I assumed
she was alive. But when we got to LUTH and the driver was going
towards the mortuary, I began to think that the girl might have died
after all. I insisted on seeing her and they wheeled her out of the
morgue, she was almost laughing. One of my daughters brought out holy
water and rubbed it on her mouth, telling her to stand up that we were
here to take her home. Her neck was still lose, it wasn't stiff yet.
In fact most parts of her body were still not stiff after staying
there throughout the night. My wife wasn't even aware at that point.
It was later that evening that the news was broken to her.
"Her death is a big loss to us," he said before breaking down in tears.
Oluchi's immediate elder sibling, Nkem – a practising lawyer – gave a
vivid account of her last moments before the sad incident. The
26-year-old told PUNCH that the accounting undergraduate could have
survived had staff of the UNILAG medical centre attended to her
immediately she was rushed to the facility. She said they insisted on
seeing her Identity card before checking her. Nkem also revealed that
her sibling had a premonition of something terrible happening a few
days before the sad incident. She battled to contain her emotions
while pouring out her heart to our correspondent.
"Last Sunday while at one of our prayer meetings in church, the man of
God asked us to rebuke every monitoring spirit assigned to follow us
about. Immediately, Oluchi got on her knees and started praying
seriously, crying for God to rebuke evil away from her. I had never
seen her pray like that before. It was as if she knew death was around
the corner," Nkem said.
Maybe the accounting undergraduate truly had an inkling of the
calamity to befall her. In one of her last few posts on her Facebook
page, Oluchi had given an insight into perhaps what was to come.
She wrote: "Many are born great but die unknown…everything that makes
us human is vain."
Nkem believes that maybe the aspiring accountant could have survived
had staff at the UNILAG medical centre attended to her promptly
immediately she was rushed into the facility last Tuesday.
"Oluchi was still alive by the time she was rushed to the medical
centre of the school but the doctors and nurses refused to attend to
her until they saw her identity card and confirmed that she was a
student. They refused to attend to her and that was how the girl died
there. The most shocking part was that when I got there, Oluchi wasn't
even placed on a bed; they had wrapped her body and placed it on the
floor. I told the doctor that it was wrong for them to have done that
because sometimes the person could still be alive at that point. It
was an indirect statement from them that nothing was done to save her
life. Even Uju, our last born who was with Oluchi when the incident
happened, wasn't attended to even with the injuries she sustained. It
was after I confronted the doctor for not being sensitive enough that
Uju was only given panadol and one small tablet. This was around
8:00pm. You can imagine how long she was abandoned from the time the
cable fell on them.
"At the mortuary at LUTH that night, the officials refused to honour
the death certificate issued for Oluchi, insisting that it was not
valid because the doctor did not sign it. He probably didn't sign it
because he knew he didn't examine her at all before pronouncing her
dead. The ambulance that brought us from UNILAG had to take the nurse
back to get the doctor to sign the death certificate while the body
was wheeled to a corner outside the mortuary. It was until about
11:30pm that her body was finally taken into the morgue.
"Oluchi was brought to the medical centre alive but she died because
they refused to treat her. It's a shame that an ordinary school ID
card would be more valuable than the life of a human, a promising
young lady," she said.
Several days without a sign of Oluchi has left a sour feeling on the
lips of every member of the household. Oluchi's mother, Augustina, a
business woman, has remained inconsolable while relatives and close
friends of the family are still grappling with the reality, wondering
how death could have snatched one of their brightest away. Their grief
is such that even the slightest memory of her leaves them in tears.
"An alarm clock Oluchi set to wake her up for prayers and studies
every midnight rang on Thursday, everybody in the house woke up and
started crying," Ugo, eldest child of the family, told Saturday PUNCH.
"It brought back her memory into the hearts of everyone of us. We
cried till morning. To imagine that she would not be here with us
again is really heartbreaking," she said.
According to Ugo, a bank worker, the fashionable and very friendly
Oluchi was born on a Sunday after their mother fell into labour during
a church service. Given a pet name for that reason, she grew up
becoming everybody's favourite in the home especially for her calm
approach to issues that needed her input. Ugo, whose wedding had been
fixed for October 17, wonders what that day would now look like
without the charming and loveable Oluchi in the picture.
"She told me some months back that she wanted to become a chartered
accountant before she graduated from the university and was working
very hard towards achieving that dream. We were all very happy for
her. The last time we saw, she told me that the dress she was going to
wear on my wedding in October was ready and that she couldn't wait to
put it on. But rather than wait to put that fine dress on, the earth
is going to be Oluchi's cloth now. It is so painful to lose her at
such a time in her life. I am really in pains," she said.
The family pains could have been more severe had God not preserved
Uju's life. The 19-year-old who was with Oluchi at the time of the
tragedy managed to escape with her life but not without some injuries
to the face and hand. She could barely speak when our correspondent
visited the family on Thursday.
On Wednesday morning, enraged students of UNILAG blocked major
entrances into the school and shut down academic activities while
registering their frustrations at the incident. Many of them blamed
the university's authorities for not doing enough to improve
facilities on campus especially at their hostels. It took spirited
attempts from top management officials and an address by the vice
chancellor, Prof. Rahman Bello, who blamed the incident on electric
cables belonging to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, for the
rampaging students to sheathe their swords.
A delegation from the institution among them Prof. Tunde Babawale and
Dr. Karo Igbinaka visited the family on Thursday. They had come to
commiserate with the family and assured them of their total support.
Oluchi's body was moved to her native Enugu on Friday where she would
be buried next weekend.
-PUNCH
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