The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel was on Thursday called upon to sack his ‘health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek by opposition political party the CTP’s secretary-general Erkut Sahali, following the death of a nine-year-old girl at northern Nicosia’s emergency hospital on Monday.

The girl, named as Chinyere Olivia Ojoagu, suffered a cardiac arrest after having been admitted to hospital suffering symptoms resembling epilepsy and then discharged on Sunday, with Sahali quick to point out that she died at the same hospital as 20-day-old Mihrimah Toymuradov, who was fed ethanol by staff on duty in October last year.

“The fact that the minister did not necessarily stab her in the side himself does not mean a resignation is not warranted. A system at the minister’s disposal also led to the death of a baby through being given alcohol,” he said during an appearance on television channel Kanal Sim.

He then described the ‘health ministry’s’ reaction to both deaths as “arrogant”.

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“We are dealing with a ministry which has a haughty attitude, saying that autopsy results will be shared with the public if necessary. If it does not care to properly conduct an investigation, and if Unal Ustel were truly on top of this as prime minister, he should have dismissed Hakan Dincyurek as health minister today, right now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ojoagu’s father Osita Ojoagu spoke to newspaper Yeniduzen and decried the lack of certainty over the situation which led to his daughter’s death.

“I came to collect my daughter’s body. They performed an autopsy to determine the cause of death. We do not know what happened to my daughter. We brought her [to the hospital] and she died. Was it from an illness? Was it not? We need to find out why she died. This is important so that this does not happen again,” he said.

He added that there was “nothing wrong with our daughter” before last weekend.

However, the Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital’s chief physician’s office – which also covers the emergency hospital – insisted that it was Ojoagu’s parents’ choices which led to her hospital. The hospital’s chief physician is Mustafa Kalfaoglu.

“[Ojoagu] … was taken to the accident and emergency unit of the Famagusta state hospital at around 10pm [on Sunday] due to complaints resembling an epileptic seizure. Following an evaluation there, admission was recommended … but [her] relatives refused and requested that she be discharged,” the office said.

It added that Ojoagu was then taken back to the hospital on Monday morning, examined by a doctor, and then sent to Nicosia by ambulance.

“There, she was urgently examined … and admitted to the accident and emergency unit at 10.15am. At around 11am, she suffered a cardiac arrest. Physicians on duty intervened and life support was administered to the patient. However, after approximately an hour of advanced life support, the patient died despite all interventions,” it said.

It added that it has launched an investigation into the matter, with the results of an autopsy expected in due course, and tissue samples having been sent to Turkey.

Ustel released a short statement on the matter on Wednesday night, saying that “every child living in this country is our own child”.

“The prime minister’s office, the health ministry, and all relevant institutions have been meticulously monitoring developments from the very beginning,” he said, before offering his “deepest condolences” to Ojoagu’s family.