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Justice Oyindamola Ogala of an Ikeja High Court was yesterday informed of how a 12-year-old student of Chrisland High School Opebi, Adeniran Whitney, died on February 9, 2023, at the Agege Stadium.
Testifying before the judge, a businessman, and father of the deceased, Mr Adeyemi Michael Adeniran insisted before the court that his daughter, Whitney, was never a sickler.
While being led in examination-in-chief by counsel to the Lagos State Government (LASG), Mr Babajide Martins, Adeniran hinted to Justice Ogala that his wife called him from the office to come to Agege, the hospital she (Whitney) was taken to after the incident at the Agege Stadium.
In his evidence in the ongoing trial of the staff of the school: Ademoye Adewale, Kuku Fatai, Belinda Amao, and Nwatu Victoria who were slammed on two counts charge by the state government, the father of the deceased who became moody, said, “On the day of the incident, February 9, my daughter left home in her usual way to school. It was the day for their inter-house sport at Agege Stadium. She left home very healthy, nothing was wrong with her.
“I had arrived at my office in the afternoon when the mother (my wife, Blessing Adeniran) called to inform me that she was told at the stadium that Whitney slumped and had 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 principal that Whitney was already coming up before she was taken to the hospital. After about 10 minutes, she called 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, and waved 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”.
Adeniran further notified Justice Ogala that his wife had told him to go inside and pray for his daughter; maybe she will wake up.
In his words: “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 I tapped her severally, but nothing happened.
“I asked for the doctor of the facility, standing in a small room like a reception. I knelt before the woman (doctor) to do whatever she can do to wake my daughter up.
“She responded that there was nothing she could do, on the reason that the deceased was brought in dead. I stood up and went back to the room where she was lying down, 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 any more. She confirmed that she was already dead at the stadium before she was brought to the hospital.
“But she cannot pronounce her dead because she is 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 N8,000.00. She later came back and said she needed more money, so I gave her N7000. At that point, I called some of my friends that reside close to that Agege Central Hospital.
“In a short time, they all arrived, they asked if I had 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 burying my daughter, she persuaded me. The principal and the school nurse were there.
“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. I nearly agreed at a point, I don't even know of any morgue.
“Before that day of the incident, we played together, and she never complained, I remembered 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 telling myself, why should I bury my daughter in a hurry without knowing what happened to her. She said the money and the pain I will go through in the process of autopsy would be much. I told her what other pain is the worst to the death of a child and how much money will I spend to bring her back alive”.
Adeniran told the court that it was at that point he called his friend at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
“That night, we took her body to LASUTH around 7 pm. The second day we got back to LASUTH, I met the Pathologist, who advised that if we wanted to go for an autopsy we should write a petition.
“So, I left to Panti and I asked my lawyer to write the petition to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), which he did.”
It would be recalled that the LASG had arraigned the defendants on offences bordering on involuntary manslaughter, reckless and negligent manner that endangered her life.
The offence, according to the prosecutor, contravened the provision of sections 224 and 251 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
But they pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
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