Colleagues of Dr. Stephen Urueye, have described his death as cruel and sad.
Urueye, who was on housemanship at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, was attacked by some hoodlums around 9pm on Thursday in the Canal area, near the campus while he was seeing off a friend who visited him in his lodge.
He was knifed in the thigh and dispossessed of cash and an ATM card, by the hoodlums. The police had arrested two persons in connection with the attack on the 25-year-old doctor, who was the only son of his aged mother.
Proprietor, Bosworth College, Lagos, Mr Kayode Salako, who said the deceased attended the college for his secondary education, said he was a quiet and exceptionally brilliant student.
He added that he made outstanding grades in his 2009 senior secondary school certificate examination before attending a tutorial college in preparatory for university.
He said, “I taught him from JSS to SS3. He was a gentle student and his intelligence quotient was high. I am sad to hear how the life of such a promising medical doctor was cut short.’’
A colleague of the deceased, Dr Sowole Olamide, said, “The attractive thing about Urueye wasn’t just his hard work and the dedication he had for his patients, he was gentle. He was somewhat heavily-built but a gentle soul. If he was not in the wards, then he was swimming.”
He said when he was pronounced dead, they did the CPR for hours, not wanting to admit that he was dead even when his body lay without responding.
Another colleague, Jerry Oputa, who was a roommate to Urueye during his undergraduate days and his next-door neighbour in the LUTH residence for house officers, also said, “He was a hard worker; not so much ambitious as he was deeply concerned for people’s lives and well-being.
“He wasn’t a self-centred fellow. He was kind and fun to be with. Three years ago when my late father was in the hospital and required blood transfusion, he was one of the people who willingly stood up for him and donated blood. He will be sorely missed.’’
