THE National Coach of the Super Falcons, Florence Omagbemi, has described the circumstances surrounding the death of her nephew in the premises of 4-star hotel in Effurun, Delta State, as mysterious and demanding justice. Samson Omagbemi, the 15-year old nephew of the female football coach, and Darlington Taire, another 15-year old boy, were reportedly found dead in the swimming pool of the hotel.
The boys, had reportedly gone to swim with a number of their peers, all students of Challenge Secondary School, Kolokolo, Enerhen in Uvwie council area of the state, after writing their final paper of the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE). The two boys were declared missing by their parents and guardians on Monday but their corpses were only discovered on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking during a telephone conversation with The Nation, yesterday, Omagbemi, who could not hide her pain over the loss, demanded that all those who played roles in the circumstances that led to the death of her nephew, who she also described as her son, having adopted him from infant, after the death of her elder sister and biological mother of Samson. “We want justice for our son. This is my late elder sister’s son and he’s my son. It is painful, I am just trying to hold myself. The school that took them to a different location for the examination did not even notify the parents, that’s one.
The management of the school and the teachers who collected money from the students and took them to a hotel has a case to answer. “For Christ’s sake, these are JSS students, what are they going to do in a hotel. They finished examination and they contributed money to go to a hotel. All these are stories we have never heard before until after his death, still in his school uniform, that boy did not come home alive. They took him and his friends to the hotel.
We want justice for our son. All those involved should be brought to justice. “This is a mystery to us because even when my family went to the mortuary yesterday to see the corpse, the boy’s face was scattered, he was still bleeding as at yesterday. They destroyed his face with bruises all over his body. They threw him into the pool, for what? 15- year -old boy, what has he done? How can you beat a 15- year-old to death like that? It is painful, we just want justice. We want all those involved to face justice”, Omagbemi said.
