Following the controversy that has trailed the death of 11-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, the Lagos State Government has started that Dowen College in Lekki will remain shut as other schools reopen on the 4th of January 2022.
Other private primary and secondary schools are expected to commence the second term on Tuesday.
Little Oromoni died on November 30, 2021. His family alleged he was beaten by some of his seniors and given a chemical substance to drink days before he died.
Following the public outrage generated by the incident, the Lagos state government on December 3, 2021, ordered the indefinite closure of the school.
An assistant director in charge of the public affairs unit, Ministry of Education, Ganiu Lawal, told Premium Times that soon, the school would join others to resume but “not until ongoing investigations into the unfortunate incident reach an advanced stage.”
According to Lawal, since the matter was not strictly a state matter and with the involvement of the police and other parties, “it would be ideal for all “t’s” to be crossed and “I’s” to be dotted.
“But I can assure you that very soon the issue will be resolved, but they are not resuming tomorrow” Lawal said
In a statement released on Monday, January 3, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Folasade Adefisayo, said bullying, cultism, and other vices would not be tolerated in any part of the school. Admonishing school administrators to increase counselling of students against these vices, the commissioner welcomed students, teachers and school administrators to the beginning of a New Year and second term of 2021/2022 school session.
“Devise appropriate strategies to advance teacher, student interaction in order to gain an insight and expose negative tendencies before they metamorphose into unfortunate situations. Adequate monitoring, especially as it affects boarding school students should be enforced to prevent the incidence of bullying and all other vices,” the commissioner advised
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, stated that the autopsy report did not show that Sylvester Oromoni was murdered revealing that a toxicology test will be conducted on the corpse.
He said; ”We are not at the peak yet. But we have done our investigation and have sent the report to the Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP for legal advise on those arrested and DPP has replied.
“We have gone through the medical aspect which is the post mortem.
“Post mortem was carried out in Delta and Lagos states. The first one done in Delta State was only witnessed by the parents of the deceased.
“But after I held a meeting with the parties concerned, at the instance and directive of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and my Inspector- General of Police, IGP Alkali Usman Baba, the second post mortem was carried out in Lagos.
“The corpse was brought from Delta State to Lagos, where the Post mortem was carried out with all the parties involved, that is parents of the deceased, parents of the students accused, the school authority and government. These were the four parties that witnessed the post mortem. And the result is out.
“The report of the Post Mortem did not bring out the issue of murder on anybody.
“Besides the result of the autopsy, the court order that we got has elapsed and we have released the house master and others on bail because there was nothing that indicted them of murder.
“It is only a murder case that is not bailable. Every other offence is bailable. They have been in custody for more than twenty days and that is infringing on their fundamental human rights. Since medical and legal reports have not indicted them so far, I think there is a need to allow them to have their freedom because bail is not the end of the case.”
