The inquest into the death of an 11-year-old schoolboy is causing outrage in Nigeria, with the family claiming that their child attending an elite boarding school in Lagos was poisoned by five of his classmates and denouncing an attempt to cover up a homicide.
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The November 30 death of Sylvester Oromoni has moved Africa’s most populous country, and taken a national turn after an unbearable video was broadcast on social networks showing the boy screaming in his hospital bed, causing uproar to the presidency.
The family claims that their child was forced by his classmates to swallow a toxic liquid, and that those responsible are protected. The school says there was no cover-up and is cooperating with investigators.
Local authorities have closed the boarding school, where children from wealthy and influential families are educated, until further notice and President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement called on the police “to shed all light” about the boy’s death.
The case began on November 22, when officials at Dowen College in Lagos called Sylvester’s parents and asked them to come pick up their son, who had injured his ankle the day before during a football match, told AFP. AFP his family.
Initially, the boy claims to have injured himself but as his condition deteriorates on the way to Warri, his hometown in southeastern Nigeria where he is finally admitted to hospital, his family begins to doubt.
Sylvester had been harassed a month earlier, beaten by fellow students who threatened “to kill him”, told AFP his big brother Keyness Oromoni.
“I asked him: ‘It can’t just be football, what happened to you, tell me!’ but he didn’t say anything, he was just crying and looked like he was in so much pain”, continues the big brother.
“Recurring problem”
On November 29, a day before his death, he finally claims that five boys entered his room at night, brutalized him and forced him to drink a chemical liquid, still according to his family.
In a statement, boarding school officials say the family called them the same day to inform them of his charges.
“We then immediately launched an internal investigation… Unfortunately, we had barely made any progress before the social media frenzy began”, the school board said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with authorities and committed to seeing justice done.
Cases of school bullying resulting in death are not uncommon in Nigeria, and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice.
The press often echoes cases of pupils and students who engage or coerce others into violent practices to join cults, locally called “cults“.
“Whether this incident really stems from bullying or cultism,” a spokesman for President Buhari said in a statement, “it must serve as a trigger to respond permanently to this recurring problem”.
Covering up a crime?
On December 7, five teenagers and three supervisors were finally arrested, but they were all released on bail a few days later.
The findings of an autopsy conducted in Lagos affirm that he “there is no evidence that can establish a case of torture, intimidation and forced ingestion of toxic substances”, local police chief Hakeem Odumosu said last week.
But the conclusions of another autopsy conducted in Delta State, where the schoolboy died, differ.
A copy of this autopsy report, seen by AFP, reports “bruised flanks and back” and describes the cause of death as “acute lung injury” due to “chemical poisoning in the context of blunt trauma”.
Contacted by AFP, the lawyers representing the five teenagers could not be reached and the school refused to respond.
The investigation resumed on January 15, and justice asked the various parties to refrain from making statements to the press until the end of the investigation.
But contacted last week, the family of the schoolboy, relying on the autopsy report carried out at Delta, affirmed that there was an attempt to cover up a crime.
“With five families coming together to try to kill the case, with the school and the government entangled, there is almost no chance for us to fight,” declares to AFP the sister of the schoolboy, Annabel Oromoni, joined by telephone in Canada where she resides.
“My brother was dying because everyone tried to cover up,” she denounces in tears.
The inquest into Sylvester’s death isn’t over, however, and the boy’s father says he still has hope: “I think we’ll get there, it’s not the end.”
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