The
circumstances surrounding the sudden death of the late senator
representing Osun-West senatorial district, Chief Isiaka Adeleke, are
still unfolding with the latest revelations.
Late Senator Adeleke
Speaking while testifying before a coroner in Osogbo, on Monday,
the Chief Medical Director, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Prof Akeem Lasisi, disclosed that the late
senator representing Osun-West senatorial district, Chief Isiaka
Adeleke, died of an overdose of banned injections.
According to a report by Punch Metro, Lasisi, who spoke from the
witness box, said the Chief Medical Director of Biket Hospital, Osogbo,
Dr Adebisi Adenle, called him on the telephone on April 23 to tell him
that Adeleke had died.
Lasisi, who said he saw Adeleke’s corpse on a table at LAUTECH’s
morgue, added that a pathologist, one Dr Solaja; two resident doctors,
who are also pathologists; the Officer in Charge of Homicide, Osun State
Police Command; Divisional Police Officer, Dugbe Police Station,
Osogbo; and the Consultant Pathologist, LAUTECH, were all present when
an autopsy was carried out on Adeleke.
Punch reported further that the CMD told the court that one of the
aides of the late senator told him that the deceased complained of leg
pain and somebody treated him, adding that the aide told him that the
person, who treated Adeleke was not a doctor but could not say if he was
a nurse.
The CMD stated that the aide mentioned the names of the various
injections administered on him before his death and the aide (in company
with other aides) was asked to go and bring them.
The CMD stated that he did not ask for the name of the person who
treated Adeleke but he wanted to know what was administered and the
competence of the person that administered the drugs.
He said among the injections given to Adeleke was Analgin, which he
said was outlawed when the late Prof Dora Akunyili was the Director
General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and
Control.
He said, “I saw the corpse. Before any process of examination
of any diagnosis in medicine, there is what we call history before
examination. So, we asked for the person who knew the conditions
surrounding the death of the senator. So, the family pointed to one of
the aides and the aide said he (Adeleke) was active the previous day and
he came at midnight and started complaining of leg pain. So, they sent
for somebody who came to give him injections.
“I asked clearly the medical status of the person that
administered the injections. I asked, ‘Is the person a doctor?’ but he
said no. ‘Is he a nurse’?, he said he didn’t know but the person was a
face they were used to.
“He mentioned various injections, so at that point I asked him
if could lay his hands on the empty ampoules of the injections. The
family members went home to get them. The injections were five per cent
dextrose. We saw empty sachets; it was like a fluid and with it, we saw
an intravenous fluid-giving set and scalp vein needle. We saw that
empty. We saw two ampoules of Analgin, four ampoules of valium
(diazepam) – 10ml each making 40 milligrammes, one ampoule of
pentazocine, one ampoule of gentamicin and two ampoules of
hydrocortisone.
“All of these were empty and his aide said these were what he
was given. He also added that after he had been given, he (Adeleke)
called him that he doesn’t want to entertain any visitor and he went to
sleep. He (the aide) said he later went back to check him and saw that
the senator’s eyes were wide open but he wasn’t breathing.”
The CMD added that diazepam ‘sedates and tranquilises when given in
moderate dosage’ but said it could knock off reflexes if given in the
type of dosage Adeleke was given and could eventually lead to death.
He explained that pentazocine was capable of killing bad pain but
it was usually advised not to be given to patients intravenously but
through intra-muscular injection.
He stated that if the injection would be given intravenously at
all, it should be given at a facility where the patient could be
resuscitated with artificial oxygen in case his breathing stopped.
“Analgin has been outlawed since the days of Dora Akunyili in
NAFDAC. So, I don’t know where they got it from. They were given in
excess dosage,” he said.
Also the Osun State Deputy Governor, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, in her
testimony before the coroner, said Adeleke hesitated before he ate three
spoonfuls of rice at a funeral ceremony in Osun State, a day before he
died.
Adeleke and the deputy governor were among the dignitaries, who
attended the funeral of the mother of the Chairman, All Progressives
Congress in Osun-West senatorial district, Mr Yinusa Amobi, at Kuta,
Osun State, on April 22. The senator died the following morning.
She told the coroner that she waived her immunity to personally
appear before the coroner because of the importance she attached to the
probe and to state what she knew about the moment she spent together
with Adeleke and others at a social function on Saturday, April 22.
Laoye-Tomori stated that she shunned the special chair prepared for
her and chose to sit close to Adeleke because the deceased demonstrated
an uncommon humility by coming to welcome her beside her vehicle when
she arrived at the venue of the ceremony.
The deputy governor told the coroner that Adeleke was served rice
in an uncovered plate and the rice had no fish or meat and he was
hesitant to eat.
She said, “A woman brought a plate of rice. There was fried
rice, a mixture of ‘jollof’ and white rice. There was no protein in it,
that is, there was neither meat nor fish and the food was not covered. I
was wondering why a man of his status would be served food not covered
but I don’t know whether he was already eating the food before I arrived
there or not.
“The senator was using his spoon to turn the rice and he was
hesitant to eat it. I said jokingly, ‘Your Excellency, why don’t you ask
them to take the food away if you don’t want to eat it? And he said,
‘Se tori wipe kosi eran lori e?’ (Is it because there is no meat on
it?).
“He said that woman brought a bowl of fish but these people you
are seeing ate everything and left nothing for me. He then took his
fork and stretched his hand to take a piece of fried fish from someone
sitting close to him but his fork couldn’t pick it because the fish was
fried.
“He took just three spoons and pushed the food aside. He was
full of life and was cracking jokes. A gentleman seating on his right
side brought out a drink from his pouch.”
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