John Akpan, a final-year student of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, tragically slumped and died during a karate training session.
A source close to the Polytechnic community told Punch that the Higher National Diploma programme student in the department of Media Studies of the institution left the students’ lodge off campus for Karate training on Saturday, April 12, 2025.
According to the source, immediately when he entered the pitch, he fainted and was rushed to a private hospital in Ikot Ekpene where he was referred to General Hospital, Ikot Ekpene.
The president of the Journalism and Media Studies Students Association, Mr Nsoefen Mark Akpan, who witnessed the incident, said the doctor at the hospital after a close examination, pronounced the deceased dead on arrival at the hospital.
Akpan said students who refused to accept the doctor’s report, took the deceased to church for prayers, but he was rejected.
A spiritualist then offered to resuscitate the victim but couldn’t succeed, and later claimed that the deceased has been admitted already in the spirit world.
“At this point, we returned the corpse to the mortuary, but students were still waiting to see if the colleague was d3ad,” he said.
Akpan said the Head of the Department, Dr Inemesit Umore, came to the hospital and addressed students before they left the hospital while the corpse was deposited in the mortuary after the parents were contacted.
Akpan further revealed that the young man wrote exams last Thursday without any sign of sickness.
According to him, the deceased was the leader of karate training and worked every Saturday morning.
