Family of late teenager appeal to Edo govt over seized corpse

The family of a 12-year-old student of New Era College in Benin City, Edo State, Glory Ekeleyede, who died about two months ago at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, following an illness, has appealed to the Edo state government following the refusal of UBTH to release the corpse over outstanding debts.

Glory died July 15, 2022, and the management of the UBTH has seized the corpse over the inability of the parents to settle an outstanding bill of almost N400,000.

She was born in 2009. She was in JSS 1 at New Era College. She would have been in JSS2 now that schools have resumed. She hardly fell sick. The only time she took ill was the one that led to her death.

The family is therefore appealing to the Edo State government, non-governmental organizations, and public spirited individuals to come to their aid.

Father of the deceased, Samson Ekeleyede, 66, from Uromi in Esan North East local government area of the state, lamented that his daughter’s sickness had completely wrecked the family, so much so that they are still indebted to a lot of persons in their desperation to save her life.

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“I learned tailoring but that is not what I am doing. I am doing small jobs outside to feed my children. My wife sells tomatoes and pepper in the market and that is how we have been managing.

What actually happened was that we thought it was fever, or something else. We took her to some place. “They treated the fever. After two, three days, we saw one of the eyes swollen. We were alarmed.

“We were afraid and we took her to the hospital where she was born – Supreme. They said they could not handle the case and they referred us to a Specialist at Ring Road. Specialist now referred us to UBTH. That is how we got to UBTH. That was June 29, 2022.

They asked me to go and bring N393,910 which I did not have. All that I had before, I have spent it on her and I am even owing many people. What I spent for her treatment alone is even more than the bill they have given me. I don’t have money again. To eat now is even a problem for us. No help again because I cannot go again to the people who I borrowed money from before”.

Speaking on the effort he had made since the death of the child, the visibly distraught Ekeleyede said “The child died on the 15th of July and since then she has been in the mortuary. I went to plead with them; they said it’s not their making. They said I have to pay.

They said they used oxygen and that is why the money is high. You used oxygen; the oxygen did not work. If the child is alive now, it’s another thing.  But they said till I pay, they will not release her body to us to bury. I have been going there but they refused.

When contacted on the matter, the public relations officer of UBTH, Uwaila Joshua, said he was not aware of the case but stated that the deceased’s father may not have gone through the right channel to seek the assistance of the hospital.