Family buries first-class graduate Rebekah Sekidika who died one week before UK travel

first-class graduate Rebekah Sekidika

A first-class graduate of microbiology from the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City Rebekah Sekidika has been buried.

Ms Sekidika was buried on Saturday at the Port Harcourt cemetery in Rivers State.

Father of the deceased Sampson Sekidika earlier told PUNCH that his 24-year-old daughter died at the Paragon Clinics and Image Diagnosis in Port Harcourt, Rivers State during a procedure by a team of medical workers on February 2, 2024.

Sekidika is suspected to have died from an overdose of spinal anesthesia. She was billed to travel to the United Kingdom on February 9 for further studies.

On Saturday, her family members, relatives, friends, and mourners retrieved her body from the Military Hospital in Port Harcourt where it was deposited.

Her body arrived at the Vaults and Gardens, a private part of the Port Harcourt Cemetery where a brief funeral service presided over by Bishop Chris Ebata was conducted.

Mr Sekidika restated his demand for justice, insisting that his daughter died out of the ‘negligence and incompetence’ of the medical team that performed the procedure on her.

“This is a loss we will mourn for the rest of our lives. Instead of a marriage certificate, it is a death certificate I got.

“On that fateful day, she went to the hospital hale and hearty just to go for something she too said was a simple procedure. But due to the negligence of people she died from a procedure that didn’t require surgery,” he said.