The Anambra State Police Command, yesterday, said it was launching an investigation into the death of another schoolboy at St.Valerian Catholic School in Onitsha, following alleged beating by a female teacher.
Izuchukwu David Onwualu, an 11-year-old JSS 1 student allegedly died after he was manhandled by his Basic Science teacher.
The Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, who spoke through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ikenga Tochukwu, assured that the command would investigate the matter thoroughly.
He said: “We have not got official report on that yet. But somebody had called me telling me about the matter. Now that you have reminded me, we shall look into the matter and I will get back to soonest.”
According to a source, the school, in an attempt to cover up the matter, gave the boy’s father N200, 000 as compensation, after which he hurriedly buried the boy.
The deceased father, Dubem Onwualu Christopher, who said he took the boy to school in the morning of the fateful day, expressed surprise that he was writhing in pain in the evening.
He added that he was still away from home when he was called, and informed that the boy had severe health challenges, and investigation later revealed that he was manhandled by a female teacher.
“The students claimed that the teacher repeatedly hit Izuchukwu’s head with a plastic bottle over his failure to do his assignment. She was always flogging him when he misbehaved. If he wrote slowly, she flogged him; if he played roughly, she flogged him.
“When she was flogging him, she did not know that Izuchukwu would hit his head on the wall. As she kept flogging him to make sure that he cried, he broke free and hit his head on the wall. He was thereafter rushed to the school clinic, but the attendant was nowhere to be found. Then one student carried him home on his back, ” the students narrated.
Izuchukwu’s father said,”My son was talking like someone who had lost his brain. Soon, his eyes turned white and very scary. Immediately I took him to a nurse in Apaka, but she could not attend to us.”
Onwualu said he took his son to St. Borromeo Catholic Specialist Hospital in the evening, where he was given some injections and drips.
“The doctor said the treatment was to slightly relieve him before we took him to Nnewi Teaching Hospital as he would suggest. 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. Suddenly, he told me to take him to where I was coming from.”
Onwualu 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 would later be confirmed dead around 4:00 am the following day.
“The school proprietor, two other priests, staff members and a few students of the school visited David’s residence to console his family and bury him, Onwualu Ifeanyi Emmanuel, a member of the family said.
According to him, the delegates dismissed claims that the boy was victimised in the school, but asked that everything be solved amicably.
He said,”They came on Wednesday with some students to bury Izuchukwu,” Emmanuel said. Some of the staff were remorseful, but the reverend father said the boy was only beaten on his back, not the head.”
“Prior to this, they argued that nobody beat Izuchukwu. Later they shifted ground, saying he did not hit his head on the ground. They said Izuchukwu, while trying to escape, climbed a fence and fell.”
However, the school supported the Onwualu amily offered a N200,000 compensation to the family.
“They promised to come back to us but they have not,” he said.
