A student of Government Secondary School, Afikpo, Ebonyi State has been hospitalised after he was forced by a senior student in the school to drink poisonous garri (cassava flakes)
Fruitful Onwe, a Junior Secondary School (JSS 1) student, was allegedly forced by one Iroh Chidiebere Bright, a Senior Secondary School (SS2) student in the same school, to drink garri socked with hypo detergent.
The Nation investigation revealed that the ugly incident was hidden from the school management and parents by the senior student, who attempted to smuggle the victim out of the school in company of two other students to an unknown destination before they were intercepted by some teachers.
The victim was rushed to Afikpo Medical Centre after three days, where he confessed that Bright, the House Captain, forced him to take the poisonous substance.
“He warned me not to reveal it to anyone either in the school or to my parents at home,” he said.
The school administration immediately expelled the senior student from the school.
The Principal, Mr Ogbonnia Nwachi, in a letter to the senior student, described his action as gross abuse of his position.
He also said the school considered him a huge threat to the safety of other students hence the decision to expel him from the school.
He said: “Following your dastardly offence of forcing a student under your care as a House Captain to drink garri mixed with hypo, a dangerous detergent, and for gross abuse of your position as House Captain of School House, the school finds you to be a big threat to the safety of other students on campus and thereby resolved that you should proceed on expulsion from the school forthwith.
“Based on the above resolution, you cease to be a student of Government Secondary School, Afikpo. Therefore, you have 48 hours from the date of receipt of this letter to pack your personal belongings out of the school and hand over all school property in your possession to the Captain of School (SP).”
The father of the victim and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ministry of Works and Transport, Mr. Emmanuel Onwe, lamented the suffering and pains his son and entire family passed through because of the incident.
He said: “On Friday 20th May, 2022, I received a phone call from the Principal, telling me that my son was admitted in the hospital. Furiously, I asked him what happened, and he told me that a senior student administered poisonous garri on my son and he became sick.
“I immediately took a trip to Afikpo and met the principal in his office from where he delegated a male teacher who took me to Afikpo Medical Centre where my son was receiving treatment. There I met the Vice Principal and another woman. The three of them led me to where my son was.
“My heart was so grieved at the sight of my child lying critically ill on the hospital bed, but I managed to control myself. The child who administered the poisonous garri was also there.
“When I asked my son what happened, he narrated it before the teachers. He said on Wednesday 18th May, 2022 while he was alone outside the hostel doing manual labour when the senior student who was also the hostel Captain came to him and asked him whether he would drink garri, and he said him no.
“But the senior student told him to shut up and take what he had given him and drink it immediately. My son again summoned courage and told him that he was afraid because he had never given him anything in the past.
“The senior student then insisted that he must drink the poisoned garri, warning my son not to repeat the statement. Out of fear, he succumbed to the intimidation and began to drink.
“When my son noticed that the taste was bad, he told the senior student that it had the taste of hypo-jik, but he told him to shut up. At that point, my son refused to take more of the poisoned garri against the senior student’s persuasion. He then took it from him and entered the hostel.
“After about 30 minutes, my son began to have stomach upset and pain in the throat. He quickly went to the senior student and told him his experience. The senior student then gave him palm oil to drink and warned him not to mention what had happened to anybody.
“Unfortunately, the problem persisted until Thursday night when my son became very weak and could no longer breathe well. The senior student made an arrangement to smuggle him out of the school and send him home.
“He warned my son not to mention what happened to anyone including me and my wife if he got home.
“Early in the morning while the senior student with the help of other two senior students were carrying my son on the back to sneak him out of the school, some teachers noticed what was going on and intercepted them.
“The senior student and his friends maintained that nothing was wrong with my son, but the evidence was already there as my son could not stand on his feet and was as well afraid to open up.
“They maintained their position until out of stiff interrogation of the teachers, another student who had knowledge of what transpired came and revealed it to the teachers who then rushed my son to the hospital.”
Mr Onwe alleged that some powerful persons were putting pressure on the school management to reverse the expulsion of the senior student.
He said the implication is that if they succeed and the boy is returned to school, it will have psychological effects on his son seeing and staying in the same school with the alleged oppressor.
But the Principal of the School, Mr. Ogbonnia Nwachi, denied the allegation in an interview with our reporter.
He said: “The status of the case as at today, 2nd September, 2022, is that the Secondary Education Board (SEB), Abakaliki and the Ministry of Education have ruled that the boy or culprit remains expelled.
“Nobody is putting pressure for him to be returned. The two institutions have resolved that the boy remains expelled. We are proactive. As I always advise them because I hold regular meetings with them, be kind with one another as no one knows tomorrow.
“The person you are maltreating today because you are his senior could be the person that will help you tomorrow. So, if you are in the habit of maltreating him, and he becomes an eminent person tomorrow, you will not know how to meet him. You will be hiding.
“The best thing is for them to see themselves as brothers instead of this act that I want to show that I am a senior. It doesn’t mean anything.
“The best thing is for them to see themselves as brothers instead of this act that I want to show that I am a senior. It doesn’t mean anything.
“Nobody has ever been given an award for being a bully or wicked. I will continue to advise them because for those of us on the field, to manage over 1000 students from different homes and with different idiosyncrasies is not easy.”
The Chairman of SEB, David Egbu, who explained that the matter was not before his board, called on the two families to make peace.
-Thenations
