By Efa Sunday
Information reaching out newsroom confirms that Bennedict and Linda Ayade has lost their mother.
CrossRiverWatch learnt that the inmate of Afokang Prison whose twins was named after the first family of the State died of complicated labour and postpartum morbidity, early hours of yesterday as confirmed by ASP Effangha Etim, Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Prisons Service, Cross River State Command.
She said, “The Nigerian Prisons Service, Cross River State Command is pained over the loss of the said inmate after a combined effort by the Prisons authority, the Cross River State Government and medical personnel in the General Hospital, Calabar. I assure the public that the health and welfare of prisoners remain top priority.”
Debunking information making rounds that the mother of the twins was delivered in the prison, ASP Etim held that “the report is not true as the said inmate was remanded by a High Court in Calabar on 5th November, 2018 with six (6) month-old pregnancy for the offence of child stealing. While in prison, she had been under regular ante-natal care at the General Hospital, Calabar. On the 17th of April, 2019 by 1:30pm 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 for Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong, and the efforts of the Prisons authority to provide the funds needed for the caesarean section (CS) the said inmate was delivered of twins: a boy and a girl.
“However, due to complications arising from the CS, she was referred to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) for further management, where she died on the 19th of April, 2019.
“The Command wishes to state emphatically that for the past four (4) 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 (9) medical experts comprising of a medical doctor, registered nurses/midwives and community health workers, as well as back-up medical personnel stationed in the State Prison Headquarters, any emergency beyond the infirmary is referred to Government hospitals outside the prison”, she said.