Sick six-year-old dies in Lagos apartment after she disowns her family

Rose Akpan, died in her apartment on Odunsi Street, in the Bariga area of Lagos State.

Correspondents, who visited the house to ascertain the circumstances surrounding her death, gathered from neighbours that Akpan’s hands and legs were paralysed due to a medical condition.

In a bid to keep her clean, the neighbours said they had been voluntarily taking turns to bathe her and change her diapers.

PUNCH Metro gathered that one of the neighbours, identified simply as Iya Hameed, whose turn it was to cater to Akpan, upon entering her room, found her lying unconscious on Sunday, August 21, 2022.

Iya Hameed thereafter, raised the alarm and reported to their late landlord’s son, Sunday Udoh, who in turn went with his uncle and a neighbour to report the matter at the CMS Police Station.

Speaking with our correspondent on Monday, Udoh said Akpan died from stroke, arthritis and neglect, adding that she also denied her family members access to her.

He said, “My late father rented Akpan’s room to her and her husband, who is a Ghanaian. I returned from the field when my tenants told me Akpan had died. When she was alive, she suffered from a stroke in her hand and leg.

“She had difficulty walking and some neighbours sympathised with her by changing her diapers. We even asked her the whereabouts of her family, and she insisted that she had none.

“A week before her death, when she was ill, my uncle and I took her to the Gbagada General Hospital but unfortunately, we were told that there was no bed space. So, we went to the CMS Police Station to file a report so that if she died, we would not be questioned.

“When we met the Divisional Police Officer, he advised us to take her to a hospital. We rushed her to a private hospital at Ilaje, and on getting there, a doctor asked us about her family and we said we were
just neighbours rendering assistance to her.”

Udoh said right there, he asked Akpan about her family members but she insisted that she had no family member.

“So, the doctor told us that they could not attend to her because she had no family and we returned to the police station, filed a report and took her back home. We searched for her family to no avail.

“The day she died, we revisited the CMS Police Station to report her death and we were told to pay N30,000 for an ambulance to convey her corpse.

“It was after her death that some people who claimed to be her family members surfaced and when they asked me about the incident, I told them to go to the police station to get the information,” Udoh added.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the police and officials of the Lagos State Health Management Board brought an ambulance to convey her corpse to a mortuary.

She said, “She (Akpan) was in her late 60s and had been living on our street for many years. She came with a man, who she claimed was her husband and when they quarrelled, the man left her for over 10 years.
Since then, we have not seen him and she had been living alone.

“People persuaded her to reveal her family members, but she refused and at a point, she suffered from arthritis. A landlady told us to contribute money so that we could send her back to her relatives, but she refused to go home.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, said,“I have no details concerning the case.”
(Punch)