THE House of
Representatives Committee on Basic Education, yesterday, indicted the Ministry
of Education over its lackadaisical attitude towards the death of three Queen
s
College students in Lagos. The students had died after drinking contaminated
water supplied from the school’s water system. Chairman of the committee,
Zakari Mohammed (APC, Kwara), declared, during an investigative hearing with
all stakeholders on the matter: “The Ministry of Education did not play any role
when the epidemic broke out in the school.
Rather, the Ministry of Health was on ground all through. “It did not
even end there. Before the outbreak, the former principal of the school had
written repeatedly to warn the ministry of the impending danger, yet the
ministry did not do anything.”
According to Vanguard report
,the
chairman’s outburst was necessitated by the presentation of the former
principal of school, Dr Lamin Amodu, who narrated her ordeal and declared that
it was an act of sabotage. According to her,
“the situation was better managed before I was transferred to Federal
Government College, Uromi, Edo State.
“It touches my heart that we lost those
three students, they were my daughters. I sent enough signals across to the
ministry and I’ve everything properly documented as I informed them of the poor
state of facilities in the school before I left.
“I requested for an annex in
October 2015 because of space and I even wrote the Head of Service, HoS,
Winifred Oyo-Ita, an old girl of the school, to assist and she did her level
best by 2016.” In her presentation, the current principal of the school, Mrs.
B. A. Are, said: “On February 27, I
received an 11-man panel, who told me that we need to close down the school
because it was no longer healthy for habitation and I obliged.
“It was alarming
when I was told that within two weeks, 1,200 students were registered at the
clinic, complaining of abdominal pains and that some even vomited blood.”
Members of the committee, who were apparently angered by the account of both
principals at this point, focused on the Chairman of Parents Teachers
Association, PTA, Dr John Afordike, who further opened a can of worms, alleging
that it was an act of sabotage.
Afordike, who was elected PTA chairman last
October, told a bewildered panelists that what happened at the school was an
act of sabotage perpetrated by the school technician employed by the Ministry
of Education. Former chairman of QC’s PTA ,Mrs Beatrice Ayatore, in her
presentation, told the lawmakers how she was paying the school technician, one
Mr Alex Amadi, N39,000 monthly to buy chlorine to treat the school water before
she vacated her position last October.
After listening to her narrative, the
lawmakers ordered the minister’s representative, Dr Hussein Adamu, to ask the
minister to sack Mr Amadi immediately.
They also demanded that the minister
appeared in person next Tuesday to listen to all the allegations and what
actually happened at the school that led to the death of the girls. In his
ruling, committee chairman, Mohammed, said the Minister of Health and Minister
of State, Health should be commended for the role they played on the matter.
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