Friday, March 28, 2025 - Two parents have accused a private school in the Arepo area of Ogun State of carrying out unauthorised incisions on their children’s bodies.
According to Punch, the incision resulted in health complications in
their children.
One of the affected parents, Abosede, the mother of a four-year-old
young boy identified simply as Alamis, said she discovered the incision on her
son’s stomach on March 2.
She claimed to have initially noticed the mark after Alamis complained
of persistent itching on the side of his stomach.
Abosede explained that three weeks after discovering the mark, her son
fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that the
incision had caused an infection.
She said, “On March 2, my son started to complain that a side of his
stomach was etching him. When I checked, I saw an incision on his body. When I
asked what happened, he said he did not know who did it. When I saw the
incision, it looked like he was sleeping when they did it because the marks
were not straight.
“He talks a lot, so if he was conscious, he would tell me who did it.
The third week after I saw it, he fell sick and I took him to the pharmacy and
from there took him to the hospital where they said the incision caused the
infection. They later prescribed some drugs which he used and was later getting
better.”
Her concerns, however, grew when another parent, whose daughter attends
the same school, reported a similar mark on her child’s body.
“The following day, I took him to my shop to monitor him. While I was in
the shop, another parent who enrolled her daughter in the school came and told
me she found a similar incision on her daughter’s body. I am a Muslim and my
son attends only Arabic and home lessons. The woman is a Christian, so the only
connection between her daughter and her son is the school.”
Speaking on a similar discovery, Oluwatoyin Adurogboye said she noticed
some changes in her three-year-old daughter, Karla, when she returned from
school on February 28, adding that she thereafter fell sick.
According to her, Karla had just recovered from malaria and an infection
a week earlier. When her condition worsened, they rushed her to the hospital,
where she was placed on oxygen due to breathing difficulties.
She said, “I went to pick her up from school on February 28 and anytime
I picked her up, we arrested always gifting but that very day, she got in the
cat and she slept off inside the car. She slept for six to seven hours that
day. When we got home that day, I pulled her uniform and saw a scratch on her
spine but I thought it was just a scratch. So, I left her with my sister
and nephew and went to my store. While I was in the store, my sister
called me three different times that she was still sleeping and also running
temperature. Meanwhile, she was treated for malaria and infection a week before
then.
“When I got home, she still had high temperature. Even when she woke up,
she was not active. The following morning, she started coughing and vomiting.
We later took her to the hospital and we ran a test but the doctor said there
was no malaria or infection in her body.
We later took her home but the situation got worse and we went back to
the hospital and she was admitted and placed on oxygen after the doctor
discovered she had shortness of breath.”
She however disclosed that while in the hospital, she noticed the mark
again and when she asked her about it, she tried to say something but could
only mutter ‘my teacher’ five times before stopping.
She said, “While in the hospital, I saw the mark again and when I
asked her, she said my teacher five times and couldn’t talk again. It was when
we got home and I asked her again, that she said it was her aunty that put
pepper on her back in the school bathroom.
“I called my husband and sent the picture to him. I also showed my
sister and they all confirmed it was an incision. I did not put an incision on
my child’s body and it was when I got to Mrs Abosede she confirmed it on her
son’s body too.”
The two mothers thereafter took their complaints to the school, but they
claimed the proprietress denied any wrongdoing.
According to Karla’s mother, the proprietress told them to consider
other places where their children might have got the marks, insisting that it
did not happen in the school.
She added that when she requested to review the CCTV footage, the
proprietress informed them that the cameras had not been functioning for
several days.
“We also requested that she call her workers so that my daughter could
identify the person but she declined. We went to the station the following day
and they invited her and she said again that she had checked the footage and
that she could not find anything. When we asked her to play the footage, she
only played it from the hours of 10 am to 12:15 pm. When asked what happened
between 12: pm and 2 pm, she said there was no light and my husband immediately
told her that the school has an inverter. Then, she said again that the
inverter was not working that day.”
While Abosede’s family dragged the school to court, Karla’s parents
called on the authorities to investigate the development, while also insisting
on seeing the remaining part of the CCTV.
The proprietress did not respond to calls made to her phone. However,
she sent a text message, stating she would return the call. She had yet to do
so as of the time this report was filed.
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