Kemisola Oye
A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has been told of how a 12-year-old student of Chrisland High School Opebi, Adeniran Whitney died on 9 February 2023 at Agege Stadium.
A businessman, the deceased father, Mr Adeyemi Michael Adeniran, narrated before Justice Oyindamola Ogala that his daughter, Whitney was not sickly before the unfortunate incident.
Led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecution ( DPP), Dr Babajide Martins, Adeniran told the court that his wife called him from the office to come to Agege, to the hospital she (Whitney) was taken to after the incident at Agege Stadium.
He gave evidence in the ongoing trial of some staff members of the school: Ademoye Adewale, Kuku Fatai, Belinda Amao, and Nwatu Victoria who were slammed with two counts charge of involuntary manslaughter, reckless and negligent manner that endangered the life of the deceased by the state government.
Their alleged offences contravened the provisions of sections 224 and 251 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
They all pleaded not guilty to all the counts charges.
The father of the deceased, in a moody manner, narrated, “On the day of the incident, 9th February, my daughter left home on her usual way to school. It was the day for their inter-house sports competition at the Agege Stadium. She left home very healthy, nothing was wrong with her.
“I have arrived at my office. In the afternoon, the mother (my wife, Blessing Adeniran) called me to say that she was told at the stadium that Whitney slumped and she has been rushed to the hospital. She said she was at the stadium, she was informed after she had been taken to the hospital.
“She said she was told by the (school) Principal that Whitney was already coming up before she was taken to the hospital. After about 10 minutes, she called again and said that I should come to Agege Central Hospital.
“So immediately I dropped everything I was doing and proceeded to Agege. It took me about 45 minutes to locate the place because it could not be found on Google Maps. Eventually, when I arrived, I saw my wife by the roadside, waving at me to stop. I got out of the car, I told my Personal Assistant (P.A) to leave the car on so as to quickly pick her up.”
He further stated that his wife told him to go inside and pray for his daughter maybe she will wake up. “I got inside, I saw her lifeless body on a table in a small room. In my mind, I thought she was given an injection, maybe she was sleeping. In that room, I saw some teachers, so I went close to my daughter, I raised her to my body, shouted, and tapped her to wake up. I prayed and nothing happened. I shouted and tapped her several times, but nothing happened.
“I asked for the doctor of the facility who was standing in a small room that looks like a reception. I knelt before the woman (Doctor) to do whatever she could to wake my daughter up. She responded that there was nothing she could do, that she was brought in dead. I stood up and went back to the room she was laid, the nurse was still standing close to her. I asked the nurse what happened to her.
“The school nurse said she slumped. She said she was already dilated, she was not breathing anymore. She said that she was already dead at the stadium before she was brought to the hospital. But she cannot pronounce her death because she was not a medical doctor. So I said you only brought her to pronounce her dead. She said yes. After that, the doctor in charge of the clinic came to me and said they need to wrap her up so that microbe will not enter her body and begin to swell up.
“The doctor said she needed some money, so I gave her #8,000.00. She later came back and said she needed more money, I gave her #7000 at that point, and I called some of my friends that live close to that Agege Central Hospital. And in no time, they all arrived. They asked if I have reported the case to the police officially. So, they left for the police station. As soon as they left for the police station, the doctor at the hospital came to me and said she would like to see me in private.
“The doctor told me that she will advise me not to waste time in burying my daughter, she really tried to persuade me. The (school) Principal was there and the school nurse. She said I should make sure I bury her on time and not put her in the morgue and not say I want to conduct an examination. At that point, I nearly agreed at a point, I don’t even know of any morgue.
“Prior to that day, we played together. She never complained about anything. I remember when I came from Abuja, I even gave her a soft drink. The following day, there was no complaint of ill health. So I started asking myself why should I bury my daughter in a hurry without knowing what happened to her. She said the money I will spend and the pain I will go through in the process of an autopsy would be too much to bear. I asked her what other pain is worse than the death of a child and how much money will I spend to bring her back to life. I said I must get to the bottom of what happened.”
The father of the deceased student further told the court that, it was at that point he called a friend of his at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
“That night, we took her body to LASUTH around 7 pm. The following day, we got back to LASUTH, and I met the pathologist. He advised that if we want to do an autopsy, that we should write a petition and coroner paper. So I left for Panti and I asked my lawyer to write the petition to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) which he did.”
He also told the court that he persuaded his wife to sleep since she has not been sleeping since the incident happened. “As she was about to sleep, she heard noise from Whitney’s phone. She doesn’t know the password but her sister, Amaka knows the password. So she open the phone and on her school snap chat group called ‘Lagos Housewives.”
He further told the court that some of the students sent messages there that they knew the school would not tell the parents the truth. He said one of the students wrote, “We are there and we saw what happened, she was electrocuted. Another one said she saw Whitney on the iron rail close to the coating candy machine that she want to buy. The wire of coating candy busted and Whitney was shocked like mad, she fell on the ground, started foaming in her mouth and one stupid man came and started putting water on her.”
He continued, “At that time, my mind went to her black lips and black tongue I saw when I got to the clinic they took her to”.
The prosecution thereafter tendered the printout of the snap chat.
Mr Adeniran further told the court how the school management came for a condolence visit and pleaded with the family not to go on social media.
Mr Adeniran was however cross-examined by the defendant counsel, Mrs Bimpe Ajegbomogun and Chief Richard Ahonarougho (SAN), for the first and second defendants respectively.
The witness said his daughter was never a sickler. He said the day they called him from school that she was not feeling well, he took her to the family hospital.
“We used the Inland Hospital at Ogudu. We are able to see a doctor and he prescribed some medication which I bought for her and she used as prescribed. My daughter complained of anxiety and Dr Taye examined her, she said nothing was wrong with her, and that she only needed rest.
“My wife and I judiciously administered the drugs which were prescribed by the doctor and collected at the hospital pharmacy.”
He further told the court that the cause of his daughter’s death might have been a heart attack but he did not believe it because the autopsy result says otherwise and he suspected that it might have been an electrocution.
“This is because I have seen people electrocuted before”, he said
He said he would be surprised that at the time Whitney fell, the cotton candy machine was not powered and that he would also be surprised that Whitney had fallen five to six metres away from where the machine was placed.
Under further cross-examination by the second defence counsel, Mr Richard Ahonaruogho (SAN), the witness said he did not know the second defendant prior to the incident and that the only contact with him was when he was included in the delegations that the management and staff of the school came to pay him a condolence visit.
The witness further said that he did not know if his daughter left home with her phone on the day of the incident and that he later saw her phone in his room on 11 February.
He told the court that he signed a permission letter for her to participate in the inter-house sports competition.
Whitney’s father said he did not know that both parents needed to give consent for their wards to participate in inter-house sports.
Eighteen-Eleven Media