Calabar Prison Inmate Dies Days after Giving Birth to Twins

 

The Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Cross River State Command, has announced the death of an Awaiting Trial Female (ATF) inmate of the Afokang Prison in Calabar, who gave birth to a set of twins on April 17.

A statement issued by the NPS which was made available to journalists in Calabar on Wednesday from the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Command, ASP Effanga Etim, said the late innate whose identity was concealed by the prison authorities, gave birth to a male and a female children through Caesarean section but died on April 19 as a result of complications.

The prison authorities disclosed that she gave birth at the General Hospital in Calabar, where she had been receiving regular ante-natal care.

It said the report that the inmate had delivered the babies in prison was misleading.

According to the statement, “The Nigeria Prisons Service, Cross River State Command, has received with dismay media reports insinuating that an ATF inmate of Calabar Prison was delivered of twins inside the prison facility.

“The report is not true as the said inmate was remanded by a High Court in Calabar on November 5, 2018, with six-month-old pregnancy for the offence of child stealing.

“While in prison, she had been under regular ante-natal care at the General Hospital in Calabar. On April 17, 2019, by 1:30p.m., when her labour began, she was admitted in the same hospital and a caesarean section was carried out on her.

“With the intervention of the Cross River State Commissioner of Health and the efforts of the prison authorities to provide the funds needed for the caesarean section, the said inmate was delivered of twins-a boy and a girl. However, due to complications arising from the caesarean section, she was referred to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) for further management, where she died on April 19.

“The Command wishes to state emphatically that for the past four years, there has not been any delivery in the Calabar prison infirmary. Albeit, the infirmary is well equipped to handle health emergencies that may arise with nine medical experts comprising a medical doctor, registered nurses/midwives and community health workers, as well as back-up medical personnel stationed in the state prison headquarters, and any emergency beyond the infirmary is referred to government hospitals outside the prison.”

It added: “The Nigerian Prisons Service, Cross River State command, is pained over the loss of the inmate after a combined effort by the prison authorities, the state government and medical personnel in the General Hospital, Calabar. I assure the public that the health and welfare of prisoners remain its top priority.”

According to Etim, the two babies are currently under the care of the Cross River State Government.