Adeyemi Adeniran, the father of the late 12-year-old student of Chrisland High School Opebi, Whitney had on Thursday testified before a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja.
The businessman and father of the student, who died on February 9, 2023 at the Agege stadium in Lagos, told Justice Oyindamola Ogala that his daughter, Whitney was not showing any form of distress before she left for school on the day she was pronounced dead.
Led in examination in-chief by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Dr. Babajide Martins, Adeniran told the court that he had already left for office before his wife called him to come to Agege, the hospital Whitney was taken to after the incident.
He gave evidence in an ongoing trial of members of staff of the school: Mrs Belinda Amao, the Vice Principal, Nwatu Victoria and a teacher in the school, Kuku Fatai while the other defendant is a vendor at the Agege Stadium, Ademoye Adewale.
They were all arraigned before Justice Oyindamola Ogala of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on a 2 count charge of involuntary manslaughter and reckless negligent acts.
Their offences contravene the provisions of Sections 224 and 251 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
They all pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
Narrating the story, the father of the deceased said, “My wife called me and said she was told that Whitney slumped and had been rushed to a hospital. She said that the principal of the school told her that Whitney was already coming up before she left to the hospital.
“I told my wife to go and check up on her at the hospital and, if need be, she should let me know so that I could be there.
“After about 10 minutes she called, that I should come to Agege Central Hospital.
“So, immediately, I dropped everything I was doing, proceeded to Agege. It took me about 45 minutes to locate the place because it could not be found on Google map. Eventually when I arrived, I saw my wife by the road side, she waved at me to stop. I got out of the car, I told my personal assistant to leave the car on so as to quickly pick her up,” he said
He testified that his wife told him to go inside and pray for his daughter may be 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 injection, maybe she was sleeping. In that room, I saw some teachers, so I went close to my daughter, I raised her up to my body, shouted, tapped her to wake up. I prayed and nothing happened. I shouted, I tapped her severally, nothing happened.
“I asked for the doctor of the facility standing in a small room like a reception. I knelt down before the woman (doctor) to do whatever she can do to wake my daughter up. She responded that there is nothing she can do, that she was brought in dead. I stood up and went back to the room she was laid 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 that she already died at the stadium before she was brought to the hospital. But she cannot pronounce her death, because she is not a medical doctor. So I said you only brought her to pronounce her dead. She said yes.
“The doctor told me that she will advise me not to waste time in burying my daughter, she really persuaded me. She said I should make sure I bury her on time and not put her in morgue and not to say I want to conduct examination. At that point, I nearly agreed, I don’t even know of any morgue.”
“She talked about the money and the pain I will go through in the process of autopsy. I told her what other pain is worse than the death of a child and how much money will I spend to bring her back alive. I said I must get a closure of what happened.”
He told the court that the day before Whitney’s death, he played with her and she was hale and hearty.
“Prior to that day of the incident, we played together, she never complained. I remember when I came from Abuja, I even gave her soft drink. The following day, there was no complain of ill health. So I started telling telling myself why should I bury my daughter in a hurry without knowing what happened to her.
He said that he decided to find out the cause of is daughter’s death.
Adeyemi said that later, his wife heard some noise from Whitney phone but she did not know the phone’s password.
“My sister-in-law, Amaka, knows the password; so she opened the phone and messages started dropping from her snapchat group called ‘Lagos Housewives’.
“Some students sent messages there, saying that they knew the school would not tell the parents the truth.
“One of the students said, ‘We were there and we saw what happened. She was electrocuted.
“Another one said, ‘I saw Whitney on the iron rail close to the candy machine. The wire of the machine shocked like mad, she fell on the ground, started foaming in her mouth, and one stupid man came and started putting water on her.’
“At that time, I remembered her black lips and black tongue I saw when I saw her lifeless body at the clinic,” the father narrated
He further told the court that members of the school’s management came on a condolence visit and told the family not to go on social media.
“I spoke with the principal and she told me that the cause of her death might have been heart attack but I do not believe her because the autopsy result says otherwise and my suspicion was that it might have been electrocution.
“This is because I have seen people electrocuted,” he said.
The judge adjourned the case until June 1 for continuation of cross-examination of the witness.