PHOTO: MS. VIRGINIA JIBOWU.
ABUJA, Sept 01, (THEWILL) - Not less than 166 signatures have been collected in a petition addressed to the British Prime Minister, David Cameron against the raging apartheid treatment meted to one Ms. Virginia Jibowu by the King’s College London.
In a copy of the petition made available to THEWILL in Abuja, the petitioners are asking the British Prime Minister to order an independent investigation into the conduct and marking of Ms. Jibowu’s final year MBBS examination papers apart from setting up a commission of public enquiry into the abuse of students on the Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP) and also to order a police investigation into the racial harassment and injury sustained by Ms. Virginia Jibowu on October 20, 2008 while on clinical attachment.
In 2001, King's College London introduced a 6-year experimental 'Extended Medical Degree Programme' (EMDP), which targeted London boroughs with a large black ethnic minority population. It was advertised as being designed to bring in more students from ‘socially deprived backgrounds’ who would not have achieved the necessary A level grades to gain a place on the MBBS 5 year course.
Although Ms. Jibowu attained the necessary A-level grades for a place on the MBBS 5 year course, she was segregated onto the EMDP 6 year course which she had not applied for. Unknown to Ms. Jibowu at the time, students on the EMDP programme were brought in to be used by the university as ‘guinea pigs’ in unethical medical and social research.
This, THEWILL learnt, included IQ research, psychological research, research by the Institute of Psychiatry, HIV/AIDS research and sociological research. Students on the MBBS 5 year course were not required to participate in this research.
As the EMDP students were compelled to wear badges stating that they were on the EMDP course, they were treated with contempt and hostility by staff and students on the main course.
When Ms. Jibowu complained to management about the unfairness and the segregated nature of the programme, she was bullied and victimized by staff who were implementing the programme. She was also targeted and racially harassed by a group of medical students associated with and related to senior management.
On one occasion Ms. Jibowu was assaulted by another student who happened to be an examiner’s daughter.
During the written examination, Ms Jibowu was the only student to have her MCQ answer paper switched by the invigilator.
After submitting a formal complaint to management and a claim at the Employment Tribunal, Ms. Jibowu was forced to return to the university for a re-sit year. Management refused to allow Ms. Jibowu to enter for the re-sit examinations in November 2008 which would have allowed her to take up the F1 post she had secured.
THEWILL further gathered that on 20 October 2008, the first day of her clinical attachment, she was rammed from behind with a wheelchair in the reception area of the Lonsdale Ward, King’s College Hospital. An orthopedic surgeon diagnosed a haematoma in the calf muscle and traumatic chondromalcia patellae (damage to the soft tissue in the knee). Ms. Jibowu is still afflicted and unable to walk properly or run. Her orthopedic surgeon recently confirmed that her injury is unlikely to heal permanently.
Despite submitting an incident report form at the hospital, a formal complaint to the university and a Data Protection Act request for the CCTV footage of the incident, King’s College destroyed the CCTV camera footage, refused to investigate and denied the incident happened. The Head of the Medical School then expelled Ms. Jibowu from the university on the basis that her injury had prevented her from achieving the 75% attendance requirement.
Even though Ms. Jibowu is no longer a student at the university, the management are continuing to harass and victimize her into dropping her case, apart from the fact that they have refused to release Ms. Jibowu’s 'exit degree', which is automatically awarded to all MBBS students who have successfully passed the first 3 years of the course. This is preventing Ms. Jibowu from completing her medical degree elsewhere or even applying for work.
Investigations further revealed that none of the black students who started the EMDP course with Virginia in 2002 were graduated in 2008.
In view of the nature of this case which has attracted worldwide condemnation, www.gopetition.com published by Anne Giwa-Amu has invited the global public to join in signing the signatures on this website as part of efforts in eradicating racism at King’s College London and righting the wrongs against Ms. Virginia Jibowu and other blacks affected.
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