Details have emerged how former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, died at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
According to the Middle Belt Forum championed by Mailafia, the death of the former CBN Governor was shocking and ridden with suspicion.
The Forum, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Isuwa Dogo, said as someone who relentlessly participated in the activities of the Middle Belt Forum, his untimely death had dealt a deadly blow on ethnic nationalities of not only the Middle Belt but the country at large.
The Forum said arising from various enquiries from Nigerians over the circumstances of his death, the Forum wished to state that Dr. Mailafia arrived in Abuja last Sunday, September 12, 2021, from Akure and was received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by his wife.
It said on arrival at home, the wife noticed that he was not in the best of health conditions and seemed to be suffering from malaria.
It explained that after three days of treatment without signs of improvement, he went to the CBN Hospital on Friday, September 17, 2021, where he was shabbily treated and that it took the intervention of a senior medic who immediately placed him on oxygen and admitted him.
The Forum added that Mailafia was later given the option of choosing three hospitals: Gwagwalada Hospital, National Hospital and EHA Clinics.
It said the wife opted for the third choice and that on arrival at the EHA Clinics, the wife was subjected to yet another moment of anxiety as it took a direct order from the top management of the hospital to accept him.
The Forum said after a few hours of treatment, the EHA Clinics told the wife that it was expedient to transfer the former CBN Deputy Governor to Gwagwalada, as the clinic was not fully equipped to handle the case.
The Forum stated that the wife opposed the decision and insisted that she was opposed to the idea of taking her husband to Gwagwalada and that Mailafia’s wife only succumbed when the consultant assured her that nothing bad would happen to her husband.
It explained further that on Saturday, September 18, 2021, Obadiah was transferred to Gwagwalada and that on arrival, the doctor who was billed to attend to him was not on duty.
The Forum said even when an attempt was made by foreign health consultants to save the situation, the doctor on duty got angry and said that he was not obligated to listen to any foreign consultants that had been brought into the matter with the sole purpose of ensuring that nothing went wrong.
It said wife of the former CBN Deputy Governor was asked to pay the sum of N600,000 as a deposit, even when it was a referral case, with an accruing medical bill to be settled by the CBN, saying that at a point, Mailafia complained over his breathing problems and pleaded with the doctors to place him on a ventilator, which he flatly refused.
The Forum stated that even after the doctors declared Mailafia dead, foreign consultants who were brought into the matter through Dr. Mailafia’s son who lives abroad, had directed a family member who is a medical professional, with the wife of the CBN Deputy Governor, to mount pressure on his chest for resuscitation and thereafter placed him on life support.
It said the doctors in Gwagwalada refused all entreaties by the family members of Mailafia to follow the advice of the foreign consultants, insisting that they have already pronounced him dead and that even when the wife could feel the pulse of her husband, the doctor flatly declared that there was nothing they could do since they had already pronounced him dead.
“While the above narration sums up the circumstances under which Dr. Mailafia died, we still await the result of the actual cause of his death. As a nationalist and patriot that he was, Dr. Mailafia was completely dedicated to the emancipation of ethnic nationalities from the clutches of oppression.
“The economist was never afraid to speak truth to power, just as he remained committed to the enthronement of justice and equity to all citizens across ethnic and religious divides,” the Forum said.
