The management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) has suspended Kazeem Salami, a Professor and senior consultant, for allegedly withholding information about a suspected COVID-19 case in Kwara State.
POLITICS NIGERIA gathered that the hospital authorities had accused Mr Salami of conniving to conceal from his colleagues vital information on a suspected case who died at the hospital last Thursday.
According to the tertiary health centre, the deceased, Muhideen Obanimomo, a 57-year-old UK returnee, had been on self-isolation on arrival to Ilorin prior to his presentation at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital “on the advice of the Professor who brought him.”
It said the information of self-isolation “was concealed from the frontline medical personnel at first contact in the A&E, an act that the hospital management considered unethical.”
Although the state government earlier denied that it was a COVID-19 related case, the result of the samples taken showed that the wife of the deceased is positive for Coronavirus.
According to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, one of the infected persons is the wife of a patient, a UK returnee who died last Thursday, and the other is another UK returnee.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the hospital on Monday evening, David Odaibo, UITH director of administration, said the management approved Salami’s suspension sequel to his conduct in the management of the COVID-19 patient.
“The Management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital hereby suspends Prof A.K. Salami as a Senior Consultant in the hospital. This is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected COVID-19 patient who died in the hospital on the 3rd of April, 2020,” Mr Odaibo wrote.
