An 11-year-old JSS 1 student, Izuchukwu Onwualu has been beaten to death by his teacher in Anambra State.
Onwualu who was a student of St. Valerian School Akpaka, Onitsha has allegedly died after being maltreated by a female Basic Science teacher in the school.
The school management, led by a Catholic priest allegedly gave the boy’s father the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200,000) asking him to bury the boy without informing the police.
The deceased father, Dubem Onwualu Christopher, did as instructed. Describing the incident, Onwualu said he took his son to the school on a motorcycle on Tuesday morning, only to see him writhing in pain in the evening.
“I left the school to where my wife and I sold carbonated drinks near my house,” he told FIJ.
Christopher said he was in the market to get beverages for dinner when his wife called that his son was not feeling fine. On getting home, he met David writhing in pain. “My wife was pouring water on him and, at the same time, crying for help,”
David’s classmates were present, said Christopher, and they revealed it was their Basic Science teacher who maltreated him. The students, in a clip, revealed that the teacher repeatedly hit Izuchukwu with a plastic bottle on his head. According to them, the teacher was angry because he did not do his assignment.
David was later made to do the assignment on. “Nobody did anything while our teacher was flogging him,” one of David’s classmates said in a video obtained by FIJ. “She always flogged him when he misbehaved.”
David’s classmates later disclosed that he was complaining of a headache after the incident.
FIJ learned that David was rushed to the school clinic but the attendant was nowhere to be found. Then one student carried him home on his back.
“My son was talking like someone who had lost his brain,” said Christopher. “Soon, his eyes turned white and very scary. Immediately I took him to a nurse in Akpaka, but she could not attend to us.”
The boy’s father said he took his son to St. Borromeo Catholic Specialist Hospital in the evening, where he was given injections and drips. The doctor said the treatment was to slightly relieve him before they’ll take him to Nnewi Teaching Hospital.
The consultant at Borromeo gave them a medical report to present at the teaching hospital.
Meanwhile, the medical report issued at Borromeo revealed that the boy suffered a traumatic head injury.
“On getting to Nnewi, I presented the report, and they allowed us in. The doctor flashed a torch at my son, checking his hands and eyes,” the deceased’s father said. “Suddenly, he told me to take him to where I was coming from.”
Christopher said he pleaded with the doctor to put David on oxygen, but his request was turned down. Still hopeful, he took him to New Hope Hospital in Onitsha, where he was later confirmed dead at about 4:00 am the following day.
The deceased’s mother has been unconscious since her son’s death. She has been crying profusely, according to her husband.
Meanwhile, the principal of the school, Rev. Father Ezeanyi Victor and two other priests, staff members and a few students of the school visited David’s residence to console his family and bury him.
An eye witness, Onwualu Ifeanyi Emmanuel who happens to be a member of the family, said the delegates dismissed claims that the boy was victimised in the school, but asked that everything be solved amicably.
“They came on Wednesday with some students to bury Izuchukwu,” Emmanuel said. “Some of the staff members were remorseful, but the Rev. Father said the boy was only beaten on his back, not the head.”
Despite the school’s argument, they offered a N200,000 compensation to the family, the boy’s father said.
“They promised to come back to us but they did not,” he said.
