An undergraduate student of Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA) Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State, Adebayo Alade, has been arrested by men of the state Police Command over the death of a four-year-old girl, Elizabeth Wanogho.
Alade, who teaches a kindergarten class at Falaiye Memorial Nursery/Primary School Old Ologede, Akure, was alleged by Elizabeth’s father, Mr. Ovie Wanogho of torturing her late daughter to death.
Elizabeth was said to have complained to her parents several times about the attitude of her teacher, Adebayo when she returned from her school.
These complaints came following the resignation of her former teacher, a female, before Alade was appointed to take over the class. This prompted her parents to report the class teacher to the proprietor, Mr. Kola Alade, who happens to be the father of the class teacher.
When the suspect was summoned, he did not deny it, according to the father but only said he was only playing with the little kid.
Elizabeth’s father, Wanogho, 45, accused Adebayo of putting his finger into the private part of his late daughter and also pressed her neck for reporting the sexual assault to her parents when she got home.
The little girl complained of neck pain before she was rushed to a military hospital at 32 Artillery Brigade, Nigerian Army, Akure and later referred to Mother and Child Hospital in the city where she later died.
Speaking with reporters, Wanogho demanded for justice over the death of his daughter, insisting that Adebayo deliberately killed the four-year-old girl.
Wanogho said he was transferred from Bauchi to Akure few months ago which warranted the changing of his daughter’s school to Falaiye Memorial Nursery/Primary School, which was very close to his new residence at Adebowale off Ondo Road in Akure.
He said: “I am a civil engineer with HFP Construction Company and I got transferred from Bauchi to Akure three months ago and I decided to enroll my children in Falaiye Memorial Nursery/Primary School Old Akure-Ondo road, Ologede, Akure.
“I have paid all the necessary fees demanded by the school and I also went to the school to see the person who will be the class teacher of my daughter, who is a female and I was satisfied with her.
“But one day, Elizabeth after returning from school told us that her aunty has resigned and that she liked that her aunty. My response to her was that she will also love the new aunty or uncle who may likely take over her class.
“Though, Elizabeth was fond of informing us about what is going on in the school particularly in her class. One afternoon after returning from school, I overheard my daughter telling her mother that her new uncle put his hand in her private part and touched her.
“I went to her school the following day to report to the proprietor who summoned the teacher and asked Elizabeth to repeat what she told me and which she did in our presence. When the teacher was asked why he did such, he only responded by saying in Yoruba that ’mo kan nba sere ni’ meaning (I was only playing with her). I then warned him seriously that such should not repeat itself again. The proprietor promised that such will never happen again.
“On getting home, Elizabeth still reported the uncle to me that because I came to warn him, he pressed her neck, saying that ‘your parents are not here I will deal with you’. She told me that the teacher is the proprietor’s son.
“She complained of neck pains and I went to a nearby chemist and bought the prescribed drugs and administered it on her, only for her neck to swell overnight and I rushed her to the hospital that night. It was on my way I met Kola (the school proprietor) driving out and I explained my plight to him but he said my wife and I should wait for him which I did but Kola never returned.
“It was while waiting with a neighbour who is a retired police officer that he saw us and decided to take us to the Military Hospital at the barracks where Elizabeth was placed on drips and antibiotics. She was also given nine bottles of drips and N2,800 worth of antibiotics each to just reduce the swollen neck but to no avail.
‘All along I was concerned with my daughter’s recovery but with all the treatment she was not responding well and each time she asked for food she could not swallow when the food was brought to her.
It was after few days spent at the hospital that the soldiers asked about the proprietor and I took them to the school. The proprietor claimed that he was not aware of what happened and revealed that the alleged teacher is his own son and also an undergraduate of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, but only assisting him due to the ongoing ASUU strike and because some of the teachers have left the school. He told us that his son is a cult member at his institution.
Wanogho said: “We were later referred to Mother and Child Hospital in Akure, where I was asked to buy blood but because I did not have money I volunteered to donate my blood in which two pints was taken from me to just save my daughter’s life.
‘It was then that I received a call from the police that the proprietor was negotiating the release of his son when I rushed to the police station and insisted that am still concerned about my daughter’s recovery. I was there when I was called on phone from the hospital that I had to rush back.
‘When I got to Mother and Child hospital I saw my daughter and she stretched her hands to me and called me, ‘Daddy! Daddy!’. As soon as I moved to her and carried her she breath her last’.
“I thought it was a joke I raised her hand it dropped and I realised she was gone”
At this moment, Ovie betrayed emotions and cried like a baby.
Wanogho said the doctor’s report revealed that something struck her vaginal and she was strangled on the neck.
“She is in the mortuary now and what I want now is justice. I want fellow Nigerians to help me, I have three kids and have lost one she is my carbon copy. I gave her my blood to keep her but she has left me.”
The proprietor of the school, Mr. Kola Alade, denied all the allegations leveled against his son by the deceased’s father.
He said: “Ovie never came to my school as claimed it was the mother of the deceased that came to the school with her children to complain and I summoned my Headmistress and the teacher, Adebayo who in turn denied that anything of such happened”.
Alade said when the girl was in the hospital he told the Headmistress to go and visit her and we even advised the father to take the child to Mother and Child hospital but he preferred that his child be taken to the Military Hospital.
He further alleged that Wanogho was complacent on the treatment of his child which resulted in the death of the girl. “He was reluctant all along as he did not respond when he was called to donate blood for his daughter which was late before he eventually did.”
The proprietor lamented that Wanogho simply wants to tarnish the image of his school as all he claimed are untrue.
The proprietor said: “We have urged him to let an autopsy be carried out on the girl but he has been avoiding that because when we know the cause of death, we will be able to know what really happened to the girl.”
Also the headmistress, Mrs Tinuola Ajimajasan said, Elizabeth was neither beaten nor assaulted, claiming that the school was not aware if the deceased was sick.
Reacting to the matter the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Wole Ogodo, said the suspect, Mr Alade Adebayo, has been apprehended and he is presently in detention at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Akure.
Ogodo said, the case is still under investigation and it is only a postmortem that can reveal the cause of death because we cannot ascertain if it was the beating that resulted to her death or something else.
“We will need an expert to do the autopsy on the deceased as the police cannot rely on an un-recognised hospital,” he said. Ogodo noted that the case is under investigation and the autopsy will soon be carried out.
