Police to investigate boy’s death after beating by Onitsha female teacher

By Nwafor Okafor

The Anambra Police command has assured of investigation into a school boy’s death following alleged beating by a female teacher at St.Valerian Catholic School in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ikenga Tochukwu gave the assurance when The Razor News contacted him on the telephone about the matter.

He said the matter had not been officially reported to his office but the command would take up the matter for investigation following our Correspondent’s inquest.

The PPRO said, ” We have not got official report on that yet. But somebody had called me telling me about the matter. Now that you have reminded me, we shall look into the matter and I will get back to soonest.”

Izuchukwu David Onwualu, an 11-year-old JSS 1 student at St.Valerian Catholic School in Onitsha, Anambra State, has allegedly died after manhandling by a female basic science teacher in the school.

According to a source, the school, in an attempt to cover up the matter, gave the boy’s father N200,000 who hurriedly buried the boy.

Narrating his ordeal, Dubem Onwualu Christopher, the deceased’s father, said he took his son to the school on a motorcycle on Tuesday morning, only to see him writhing in pain in the evening.

He said,“I left the school to where my wife and I sold carbonated drinks near my house.”

Christopher said he was in the market to get food for dinner when his wife called him to inform him that his son was not feeling fine.
On getting home, “My wife was pouring water on him and, at the same time, crying for help,” he said.

Our Correspondent gathered that David’s classmates who briefed his parents, said it was their basic science teacher that maltreated Christopher.

The students said the teacher repeatedly hit Izuchukwu with a plastic bottle on his head. According to them, the teacher was angry because he did not do his assignment.

“She was always flogging him when he misbehaved. If he wrote slowly, she flogged him. If he played roughly, she flogged him.”

“When she was flogging him, she did not know he would hit his head on the wall. She flogged him, but he was not crying, so she kept flogging him to make sure he cried. During the flogging, he broke free and hit his head on the wall.”

” David was rushed to the school clinic but the attendant was nowhere to be found. Then one student carried him home on his back, ” the students narrated

David’s father said,”My son was talking like someone who had lost his brain. Soon, his eyes turned white and very scary. Immediately I took him to a nurse in Apaka, but she could not attend to us.”

He said he took his son to St. Borromeo Catholic Specialist Hospital in the evening, where he was given injections and drips.

“The doctor said the treatment was to slightly relieve him before we took him to Nnewi Teaching Hospital as he would suggest. The medical report issued at Borromeo revealed that the boy suffered a traumatic head injury.

“On getting to Nnewi, I presented the report, and they allowed us in. The doctor flashed a torch at my son, checking his hands and eyes. Suddenly, he told me to take him to where I was coming from.”

Christopher said he pleaded with the doctor to put David on oxygen, but his request was turned down. Still hopeful, he took him to New Hope Hospital in Onitsha, where he would later be confirmed dead around 4:00 am the following day.

“The school proprietor, two other priests, staff members and a few students of the school visited David’s residence to console his family and bury him, Onwualu Ifeanyi Emmanuel, a member of the family said.

According to him, the delegates dismissed claims that the boy was victimised in the school, but asked that everything be solved amicably.

He said,”They came on Wednesday with some students to bury Izuchukwu,” Emmanuel said. Some of the staff were remorseful, but the reverend father said the boy was only beaten on his back, not the head.”

“Prior to this, they argued that nobody beat Izuchukwu. Later they shifted ground, saying he did not hit his head on the ground. They said Izuchukwu, while trying to escape, climbed a fence and fell.”

Despite the school’s argument, they offered a N200,000 compensation to the family.

“They promised to come back to us but they did not,” he said.

When contacted the proprietor of the school shunned questions about the incident, he rather asked our Correspondent to come over to Onitsha to discussion.