•How students are bullied, raped, killed
By Henry Umahi
The family of Mr. Emmanuel Onwe, who is the public relations officer, Ebonyi State ministry of works and transportation, has every reason to celebrate. In fact, the family could be said to be over the moon because their son missed death by the whisker.
Onwe’s son, who is a student of Government Secondary School, Afikpo, Ebonyi State, was allegedly forced by a senior student, Chidiebere, to drink garri laced with a harmful substance. But the boy survived the abominable act, which took place on Wednesday, June 18, 2022.
After investigation, the delinquent student was expelled by the school management, led by the principal, Mr. Ogbonnia Nwachi. Then some powerful individuals, blackmailers and extortionists started harassing and threatening Nwachi with sack and litigation if he didn’t recall the expelled student.
If the Onwes have every reason to be happy, the family of another student of the GSS, Afikpo, are still weeping in the valley of tears over the death of their son in suspicious circumstances about two years ago. According to an old boy of GSS, the school, over the years, has cultivated the culture of bullying.
He told the reporter: “Bullying has always been there in the school. Even when we were there many years ago, it was there. Bullying is like a culture in that school. So, I am happy that the school is beginning to tackle the menace by expelling a student who forced a junior to eat poisoned food. At the same time, I am sad that the principal is being threatened with sack for doing the right thing. How do you continue to harbour such a character in the midst of innocent children?”
To be sure, GSS, Afikpo, is not the only school where bullying, maltreatment and neglect thrive with ugly consequences. As someone remarked, boarding schools have become chambers of death.
There was national outrage when 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, a student of Dowen College, Lagos, died in November 2021, allegedly from internal injuries sustained after torture from students for failing to join a cult.
While the dust raised by Sylvester’s death was yet to settle, another student of St. Michael’s Boys College, Ozubulu, Anambra State, Bright Chimdalu Onyekwuluje, 11, allegedly died as a result of negligence on the part of the school management. The school was said to have refused to call his parents to pick him up after he took ill. An only son of his parents, he died on December 17, 2021.
Bright’s father, Prince Cornelius Onyekwuluje, said even when the student’s health had totally deteriorated, the management insisted he must stay behind to finish his exams before he could be released, saying the decision was the reason for his death.
He said: “My son died out of negligence on the part of the school. He was sick and they refused to tell us. It was my son’s cousin that borrowed a phone to call his mother to tell us to come and pick Bright that he was dying.
“He told us he has been the one backing him from the school hostel to the classroom every day to sit for exams.
“Even after the call, I reached the guardian of my son but he lied to me that the boy was okay and that it was nothing serious. I insisted on coming from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where I live to pick him, and they insisted it was nothing serious.
“When I insisted I must see him, I was surprised the boy looked so bad that he was already dying. I asked the guardian if this was the boy he said was alright, but he did not answer. Now I have lost my only son.”
However, the principal of the school, Rev. Fr. Romanus Ike Muoma, denied that the management delayed in releasing the student to his parents. According to him, he was promptly treated for malaria before he suffered a relapse.
There was also the case of a 14-year-old female student of Premiere Academy in Lugbe, FCT, Keren-Happuch Akpagher, who was allegedly raped to death by a yet-to-be-identified staff of the school. A used condom was reportedly found in her private part.
Similarly, an 11-year-old student of Deeper Life High School, Akwa Ibom, Don Davis, is still battling for his life after he was allegedly sexually assaulted by senior students in the school.
In June 2022, Ikechukwu Onachukwu, a Nigerian rapper, disclosed that his in-law died at Queen of the Holy Innocents Secondary School, Ogwume, in Ideato LGA.
“This is Obinna, 14 years of age, my in-law. Cousin to my wife. He was found at 1am dead in the boarding house at this school. Class? SS2, senior hostel. Beaten up, bruised. So many holes in this story.
“And, frankly, I’m sick of these happenings. Now it has come to my doorstep. This is outrageous. I urge every media portal to help bring light to the happenings surrounding this event and every other event concerning these children who we confidently give to schools to look after. No child should have to die,” he said.
Mr. Toye Arulogun, whose daughter, Morenike, died in a boarding school, said her death exposed some ills that have been going on in boarding schools, which have also resulted in loss of lives of young Nigerians who are supposed to be the future of tomorrow. The family, therefore, created a campaign and website in her memory. It’s called Movement Against Negligence in Boarding Schools, MANIBS, with the website, www.manibs.org.
Mrs. Idorenyin Arulogun, Morenike’s mother, said: “While we were mourning, we got to hear of deaths and near-death situations, which have happened in Faith Academy and other schools. There were so many, we couldn’t keep quiet because, if someone had spoken up before now, these schools would have done what was right and I am sure my baby would still be alive today.
“To this end, it is of great concern for us to sufficiently move against the negligence in boarding schools.”
Narrating how their only daughter died, Morenike’s parents said, “By the time we were called on Sunday, November 16, 2008, she had gone delirious, incoherent and subconscious with the inability to respond to calls of her name or recognize members of her family. It was one of the nurses that said, “I wonder what could have happened to Morenike. She was here on Thursday, and we even joked with her.”
That was when we knew that she had visited the hospital once. That day, we heard she was given drugs, which she mistakenly lost. Then she went back on Friday. She was given another set of drugs. There was no monitoring. The point is that, the 11-year-old was given drugs to go and take by herself. She lost the drugs and went back the next day to take another set.
“According to her brother who was also in the same school, she vomited the drugs. And we found out that there was no blood test administered until our arrival at the school. It was in our presence that they were trying to take her blood sample for test. They struggled and eventually were able to take the blood. They gave her some injections but she didn’t regain consciousness.”