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.
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