The
birthday celebration of a 17-year-old female student of Yaba College of
Technology, Omodesola Olusoji, turned sour last Wednesday as an
unidentified school friend of hers poured a substance suspected to be a
corrosive chemical on her. It was learnt
that it’s a tradition in the 65-year-old institution for students to
pour water on their friends on their birthdays as part of the
celebration…..Continue
It
was learnt that friends of Omodesola, a first year National Diploma
student of Business Administration continued in the tradition and poured
water on her while she was coming down the stairs at the PGD hostel.
However,
one of them got hold of a keg of corrosive chemical kept in her hostel
room, which she mistook for water, and poured it on Omodesola.
A student of the institution who preferred anonymity said Omodesola sustained burns on her face and her chest.
He
said, “We actually learnt that her mother who is a senior lecturer in
the school asked her not to come to school that day. But she lied to her
that she had a test.
“I
don’t think that malice was intended. The chemical the girl mistook for
water was the one being used for the entrepreneurial development
project.”
He added that Omodesola was initially taken to the school health centre, but was rejected because of the extent of her injuries.
Confirming
the incident to our correspondent on the telephone, the Lagos State
Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said Omodesola was
currently receiving medical treatment at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital.
She said all efforts to get the school authorities to hand over the accused to the police had proved abortive.
She said, “On Thursday evening Omodesola’s father, Kayode, made a verbal report of the incident at the Sabo Police Division.
“The
DPO has reached out to the school’s Chief Security Officer and the
Students Affairs Unit to get the accused interrogated by the police for
proper investigation of the matter but they have yet to do that.
“There
is no official communication from the school authority to give us the
reason behind that. The last time the DPO spoke with the CSO, he said
the Rector wanted to deal with the matter internally.”
When
our correspondent contacted the Public Relations Officer of the
institution, Adekunle Adams, on the telephone, he said the college was
working in collaboration with the parents of the victim to bring her
back to normal.
He
said, “Bathing people with water on their birthdays on the school
campus, had been a norm amongst the students and they do this out of
sheer youthful exuberance.
“In
all fairness, the incident was purely accidental. The suspect in the
case had been reporting at the unit investigating the matter and she had
been remorseful. She was even part of those who rushed her to the
health centre.
“The college is waiting for the medical report to know what our level of commitment will be in helping her recover fully.”
When asked if the college was preventing the police from doing their job, Adams said, “I’m not in the know of that.”
Our correspondent, however, learnt that the Omodesola’s parents are considering flying her abroad for proper medical attention.
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