The Lagos State Government told an Ikeja High Court that Chrisland School, Ikeja did not comply with the state’s safeguarding and child protection policy.
Yakubu Abisogun, a Deputy Director with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development said the ministry’s findings revealed that the school’s level of preparedness for emergencies during the inter-house sport was close to zero.
According to Abisogun, the school had only one nurse and there no ambulance was available to convey any student to the hospital in case of an emergency situation.
The witness, whom the Director of the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr Babajide Martins led in evidence, said he was the state’s coordinator for all the districts.
Abisogun remarked that there were more than 1,722 private and public secondary schools, and they were segmented into districts based on their locations.
He said the school did not have a designated Child Safeguarding Protection Policy personnel as stipulated by the Safeguarding Executive Order of the state.
He further explained that the policy required that that there should be a retainer hospital that was close to the venue but in the case of Chrisland, there was none.
He said: “The designated safety protection child policy officer takes the lead responsibility in terms of risk and every other information surrounding the place of event of such magnitude but in case of Chrisland School, they did not have any.
“We got to know about the incident at Chrisland School through the social media.
“We have a Safeguarding and Child Protection Alliance group, it comprises of all relevant agencies that ensures child safety.
“We called for an emergency virtual meeting immediately we heard of the issue.”
The witness told the court further that findings revealed that the school had over 556 students out of which 377 were prepared to participate.
He stated that over 500 of them were conveyed to the venue by the school and it was discovered that the Safety and Child Protection Policy was violated because they took over 500 pupils to the venue without safety clearance.
He said: “We concluded to meet physically on Feb. 13, 2023 at the conference room of the Ministry of Education and the meeting was chaired by Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, and other members.
“After the meeting, we invited Chrisland staff and management the next day Tuesday and they honored the invitation.
“In attendance was the principal, Mrs Belinda Amoo, the school nurse, the school’s instructor, Mr Kuku, Mrs Adebisi, the Head of Green House, Mrs Onyema and the legal counsel.
“The meeting was a fact-finding meeting and the intention was for the school to give us firsthand information about what transpired at the inter-house sport and we all asked questions based on our professional knowledge.”
He added that they had investigated a case of bullying regarding a pupil in the school and another case of negligence on the students that were taken to Dubai.
The defense counsel objected that the witness deviated from the subject matter due to the fact that he was not present when the previous incident happened.
Recall that the Lagos State Government on March 31, 2023, charged Chrisland Schools, its Principal, Vice Principal and two others with the killing of Whitney Adediran.
Adediran, a 12-year-old student, was electrocuted on February 9, 2023, during the school’s inter-house sports competition at the Agege Stadium, Lagos State.
Those charged alongside the school are Ademoye Adewale (a cotton candy vendor), Kuku Fatai, Belinda Amao (Principal) and Victoria Nwatu.
Justice Oyindamola Ogala adjourned the case till March 13 for the trial’s continuation.
