Eight months after, Edo govt explains how Gov Okpebholo’s aide died

Eight months after, the Edo State Government has narrated how Alhaji Danjuma Garba, the Special Adviser on Arewa Matters to Governor Monday Okpebholo, died.

DAILY POST reports that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health Matters, Dr Andrew Iyamu, disclosed this on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at a press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information and Strategy in Benin City.

Iyamu attributed the death of the Governor’s aide to the activities of a final-year medical student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN).

DAILY POST recalls that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Arewa Matters died on January 10, 2026, after a brief illness.

Speaking on the danger of quackery in medical practice, Iyamu said the deceased was being managed by a final-year medical student at a private hospital in the Uselu area of Benin City, contrary to medical regulations.

According to him, “A final-year medical student was treating this guy. Yes, I was managing him from UBTH. We caught him. I invited him to my office. He said he has been their family doctor.

“I said, shut up, what do you mean family doctor? Are you a graduate? You’re a final-year medical student, you’re a student. You shouldn’t treat anyone until you get your certificate.

“He met them and was begging. By the time efforts were made to transfer the late aide to a better-equipped facility, severe damage had already been done.

“I said, see what you have done to this man. Before they took him to… before I could transfer him from the hospital he was in at that Uselu area to this place, the damage has already been done. The heart was too weak to pump blood.

“The kind of drugs they pumped him with and all that. He wasn’t seeing a cardiologist. You can’t be a jack of all trades,” he stated.

He, however, added that the family of the deceased aide requested that the final-year medical student be released, insisting that he had been the family’s doctor for several years.

“They let him go. We handed him over to the family. They said, no, he’s a doctor. For more than five years, six years, this boy has been with them. A medical student. It’s wrong,” he added.

Iyamu, who decried the situation where medical practitioners attempt to handle cases outside their areas of specialisation, added: “In medicine, we have sub-specialties.

“If it’s not your area, you give it to somebody else. That’s why we have sub-specialties in medicine. Also, people want to be a jack of all trades. You don’t want the money to go outside. You want to grab everything. It is wrong. That’s quackery,” he stated.

He assured that the state government, through Governor Okpebholo’s appointment of health monitors, was determined to check such practices.

Iyamu also advised residents of the state to always visit well-equipped state-owned medical facilities, where they could have access to qualified medical personnel.