NAIJATRAFFIC learnt that two medical doctors, Michael Atiba and Michael Ugbeye, are standing trial at the Ikeja High Court of Lagos State, presided over by Justice Oyindamola Ogala, for the death of Ejiro Ugorobi.
The Lagos State Government arraigned the doctors on March 25, 2024, for alleged involvement in involuntary manslaughter, to which they pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecution counsel A.O. Azeez, Atiba, a doctor at Gbagada General Hospital, and Ugbeye, a consultant at National Orthopaedic Hospital, face charges for involuntary manslaughter, contravening Section 224 of the Lagos State Criminal Law, 2015. The incident occurred on October 21, 2023.
Nkechi Ugorobi, Ejiro’s mother and the prosecution’s first witness, testified, “Ejiro is my only son. He is 29 years old, an electrical engineer by training and went into marketing finance.
He is my friend, my adviser, and my chatmate.” She explained that Ejiro injured his leg playing football on September 9, 2023.
“Ejiro went to play football as exercise and fell. He called me and told me that he had fallen while playing football,” Nkechi Ugorobi said. She added that Ejiro informed her of his serious injury, with a swollen leg, and needed treatment from Dr. Ugbeye.
“I asked him how bad it was, and he told me it was serious. He told me his leg was swollen, and that he had to go and see a doctor at Morningside Specialist Hospital under Ugbeye… The following day, he called me that he had to run some tests. The test confirmed that he had a torn ligament,” she continued.
Nkechi Ugorobi disclosed that during Ejiro’s recovery, he worked from home and reported decreasing swelling but ongoing pain and difficulty walking.
“Throughout this period, he wasn’t going to work, and he was working from home. I asked him how he was faring, and he told me that the swelling was going down, and that he was feeling better. He told me he had to run a longer test, both blood and others. Then one day, he told me that the swelling had come down but that he was still feeling pains and walking with difficulty, limping.”
