Encomium
CONVICTED former Oceanic Bank Plc MD/CEO, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, has already spent 26 days in Reddington Hospital, confirming ENCOMIUM Weekly’s exclusive story that she might not smell her Kirikiri Prisons cell.
Still holed up in the elite specialist hospital on Idowu Martins Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Mrs. Ibru is said to be responding slowly to treatment which explains why she is yet to be transferred to Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons, Apapa, Lagos.
Some medical experts told us she may even stay longer there, considering the nature and severity of the ailment that triggered off the first day EFCC detained her, around August, 2009.
Reddington Hospital sources we contacted on Wednesday, October 26, were, however, tactful with their response to our inquiries as regards the true medical condition of the once celebrated amazon of Nigerian banking.
“I am not her doctor, but I am sure her sickness is what we can handle here (Reddington). It is just that she needs to be monitored closely at this critical stage of her health,” one of them said on the condition of anonymity.
We also learnt that patients with serious cardiac diseases would likely need more than six months to escape from life-threatening condition, depending on the kind of medical intervention and management.
In fact, an authoritative medical source informed ENCOMIUM Weekly that chronic cardiac diseases, congestive heart failure are usually complex. Asked if Mrs. Ibru would recover in about five months before her sentence runs out, our source looked at it this way: “It all depends on her response to treatment. Even with the best medical care and treatment, you can only manage a chronic cardiac disease. And you cannot totally eliminate it. That is also the case with chronic diabetes. What the convict needs is everyday professional attention, which she would not likely get in the prison,” the medical expert explained.
With a cloud of uncertainty pervading Mrs. Ibru’s true medical condition, coupled with expert knowledge that chronic cardiac disease and hypertension require day-to-day intensive care and management, it is now almost certain that the disgraced bank ‘thief’ would still remain in her luxury Reddington Royal Suite as long as she wishes.
Interestingly, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru would have been spending her 26th day in Kirikiri Prisons after she was convicted on Friday, October 9, by Justice Dan Abutu of Lagos High Court. She actually bagged six months, after a plea bargain, which critics say was just a slap on the wrist.
And diagnosed of chronic cardiac ailment and serious hypertension of lower extremities, she was allowed to return to her N90,000 a-night Reddginton Hospital Royal Suite to continue her treatment. She may, however, be transferred to Kirikiri Prisons when she fully recovers.
This story was first published in Encomium Weekly on Tuesday, November 2, 2010
