• Medical report absolves Osifala on alcohol intake
By Gabriel Dike
The sex scandal rocking Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos took a new twist yesterday when the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) alleged that the crisis is being fuelled by the school’s Old Girls Association.
Addressing newsmen on the allegation, PTA chairman, Mrs. Beatrice Akhetuamen, said the old girls have a hidden agenda and are using the alleged sexual harassment to attempt to achieve their aim.
The PTA’s new position is against the backdrop of a medical report from a government-owned hospital that the teacher at the centre of the allegation, Mr. Olaseni Osifala does not take alcohol.
The one-page medical report titled: “Re-Osifala Olaseni Medical Certificate of Fitness’’ reads; “he is not suffering from any infectious disease or a carrier of any contagious disease to public health, not a known alcohol patient and show evidence of successful vaccination.’’
The medical report, signed by a senior medical officer at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, Dr. O. Ogunbode contradicted the claims of the JSS2 student’s mother and the old girls’ position that Osifala was a known drinker.
Mrs. Akhetuamen, who was flanked by some parents, said the target of the old girls’ agenda was not Mr. Osifala but the college Principal, Dr. Lami Amodu.
Some parents, Mrs. Olubunmi Simba, who has a daughter in JSS2, Mrs. Usman Bentu, whose ward is in SS2, Mr. Richard Ugwka, who has a daughter in JSS2 and Mrs. Owen Tony-Ativie, mother of the current Head Girl and Mr. Fidelis Femi-Agunnu told newsmen that their wards are home for the Easter break and that they questioned them about the veracity of the allegation and the students said it never happened.
A parent whose daughter is in JSS2, Mr. Ugwka said ‘’parents are angry about the bad name the unfounded allegation is generating.”
Chairman of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Queen’s College unit, Mr. S.A. Oladejo, said the college does not have any record of the said Mrs. Chineye Okoye’s visit to lodge the complaint of her daughter being harassed, including the security report.
The medical and security reports as well as the names of JSS2 students, visitors’ attendance register and other log books were tendered before the panel.
Chairman of the old girls facts-finding committee, Mrs. Lalla Matthew-Daniel, appealed to the PTA and ASCSN to allow the government panel and Lagos State finish their investigations before pointing accusing fingers at the old girls.
Her words: ‘’It is very sad that they are making noise when the panel is still sitting. What are they hiding? Nobody has accused Osifala of anything; it is a mere allegation which the panel will unearth.’’
On the allegation that the old girls are scheming for one of their own to become principal, she stated categorically that it is the Federal Ministry of Education that appoints the principal and described their claim as unfounded, adding ‘’they are now bringing in religion into the case and this is very bad.”