Gloom has enveloped the Akwa Ibom Polytechnic (AkwaPoly) community at Ikot Osurua, in Ikot Ekpene local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
It was a bleak weekend for the students of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies following the incident of their final year Higher National Diploma (HND) colleague, who slumped and died instantly in a karate pitch at the weekend.
The deceased, identified as John, was said to have appeared healthy and cheerful while writing his examination Thursday, but tragedy struck two days after – on Saturday – when he left the campus students’ lodge for karate training.
His friend, who would not want his name in print, recalled that “immediately he entered the pitch, he fainted and was rushed to a private hospital in Ikot Ekpene where he was rejected and referred to General Hospital, Ikot Ekpene.”
An eyewitness and president of Journalism and Media Studies Students Association (JAMSSA), Mr Nsoefen Mark Akpan, disclosed that “the doctor at the General Hospital pronounced the deceased dead on arrival at the hospital.”
He added that the students then rushed to the hospital as they refused to believe the doctor’s report. They took the deceased to Church for prayers, but he was not revived.
“In the Church, after he was rejected, another spiritualist offered to resuscitate the victim but couldn’t succeed, claiming that the deceased had already been admitted to the spirit world.
“At this point, we returned the corpse to the mortuary but the students were still waiting to see if their colleague truly was dead,” Akpan stressed.
According to him, the Head of Department (HoD), Dr Inemesit Umoren, later came to the hospital and addressed the students before they left the hospital. The corpse was left in the mortuary as his parents were contacted.
“This is a young man that wrote exams last Thursday without any sign of sickness. The karate training is what he does every Saturday morning. He is the leader in the training. It surprised all of us how he died suddenly,” he wondered.
