2 Female Corp Members die at Orientation Camps
Female Corp member, Chiyerum Elechi reportedly bled profusely from her orifices before finally dying at the orientation camp in Kaiama, Kolokuma-Opokoma, Bayelsa state.
This Day reports that the deceased was confirmed dead in a hospital in Yenagoa Wednesday, November 30, after she reported to the camp with an ailment that made her to bleed and vomit blood from the openings in her body.
Miss Elechi, 27, who hailed from Rivers State and studied at the Ignatius Azuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was reportedly found vomiting at her lodge after arriving the camp sick and could not participate in most activities lined up for the day’s session of the orientation.
Some NYSC officials, who spoke in confidence, described the incident as a case of non-disclosure of an ailment by the corps member as a search carried out on her hostel showed sanitary pads and her dresses soaked in blood.
A source at the camp said the corps member was found vomiting and bleeding and was immediately rushed to the camp’s clinic, where the doctors said her case was too severe to be treated there.
“She was driven to a hospital in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital. Unfortunately before getting to the hospital she died. She was only five days old at the camp.
“The news of her death shocked everybody. We have not recovered from it because it is painful to die that way after going through higher institutions,” the source said.
“The doctor at the NYSC camp clinic had immediately referred her to the State owned Diette-Koki Memorial Hospital in Opolo area of the state capital where she was confirmed dead,” it added.
The state Coordinator, NYSC, Anthony Ekeocha, confirmed the incident describing it as unfortunate.
He advised corps members to always disclose their health conditions to authorities at the camp.
In a similar development, Ifedolapo Oladepo, a graduate of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), has also been reportedly confirmed dead due to negligence on the part of the Soldiers at the Kano orientation camp, reason being that she faked the illness, in order to dodge the parade.
Also, according to other sources in the orientation camp, she was said to have been initially rushed to the Red Cross Unit on the camp premises, before she was later rushed to a hospital outside the camp.
Soldiers in different camps have been generally known to have a culture of trying to infuse what they claim to be discipline into “bloody civilian” corps members. That includes corporal punishment, and sometimes, it could mean turning deaf ears.
It has been revealed that, very year in camp, there are reports of maltreatment of Corp members in the name of discipline, which is mostly just soldiers harassing corps members.
