Family sources have told SaharaReporters that Dora Akunyili, a former
professor of pharmacy, former director general of the National Agency
for Foods and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and one-time
Minister of Information, died of complications arising from uterine
cancer.
One relative told SaharaReporters that Mrs. Akunyili was completely
healthy until she lost the Anambra senatorial election in 2011 to
Senator Chris Ngige.
The source stated that, at the end of the legal tussle over the
election, the former minister visited the U.S. in 2013 to undergo what
she thought would be a routine medical checkup. “Her doctor in America
did a hysterectomy and found out that she had a malignant endometrial
cancer,” said this source. He added that it was the tumor that
eventually took her life last week in a hospital in the Indian city of
Bangalore after she had struggled with the disease for two years.
Another family source stated that Mrs. Akunyili had received the best
treatment after undergoing surgery to remove the tumor, but disclosed
that the cancer was of such malignant state that it resisted therapy.
One of the two sources revealed that Mrs. Akunyili maintained an
optimistic spirit throughout her illness. “She never once believed that
she would succumb to the disease,” he said. “Instead, she returned to
Nigeria determined to fight the disease.” He added that the former
minister was so upbeat about triumphing over the sickness that she
accepted her nomination as a delegate to the ongoing National Confab in
Abuja. Her emaciated appearance at the conference was the first sign
that she was seriously ill.
The other family source also said that, in 1998, Mrs. Akunyili had
received a wrong diagnosis of cancer. She was serving then as the Zonal
Secretary (Southeast) of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). “She traveled
to the UK then for treatment. Doctors then discovered that she was
suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Said the family source: “Once she returned to Nigeria, she paid back the
money the PTF had given her for treatment. General Muhammadu Buhari was
then the leader of PTF. She was in excellent health until last year
when her US doctor found that she had malignant endometrial cancer.”
