Vera Wisdom-Bassey
A widow, the co-founder of Vikella Nursery and Primary School, Akerele, Capitol Road, Agege, Lagos, Mrs. Oluchi Femi-Peters, and pupils of the school have cried to Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come to their rescue as they have been displaced from the school premises. The widow and the schoolchildren have also called on Nigerians to come to their rescue.
Mrs. Femi-Peters and her late husband a retired Nigerian Army officer, were running the school for the less privileged in their family compound before the tragic end of her husband, who was stabbed to death by hoodlums during the COVID-19 lockdown.
She said, after the burial of her husband, when the school was about to resume, her husband’s family evicted the schoolchildren and herself. And right now, the widow said, “I am taking refuge in my father’s house while the over 100 less privileged children that our foundation was taking care of are scattered like sheep without a shepherd.”
She stated that: “With over 100 children in the school, none of their parents couldafford their school fees, because of poverty; but, today, some of the children have gone back to their parents. This is not our dream. We were catering for them through our foundation. If the government and well-meaning Nigerians do not come to our rescue, some of them will go into crime. I am on my knees begging for urgent assistance because the situation of the kids is pathetic. Please, you can reach me by telephone, O8073953449 or O9092187221.
“What prompted my husband to set up the school was the death of a neighbour who was murdered, and he decided to take up the responsibility of training the man’s child in school, since there was no one to cater for the education of the child.
“I promised my husband at his graveside that I would continue from where he stopped but I cannot continue, if people don’t come to our aid. I can’t do it alone. If I have the strength to carry on, my desire is to remove future armed robbers from the street and raise a better society, but because the funds are not there I am calling on government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to my aid, so that the government will have less crime to fight tomorrow.”
Mrs. Femi-Peters reiterated the fact that Lillkey Nursery and Primary School was a free school, where pupils were not supposed to pay any fees for the quality education they receive or for their feeding, as the financial burden was borne by the late Femi-Peters and his wife.
However, since the death of Femi-Peters, she has been compelled to send the children away. Even her biological children have not been able to return to school for her inability to pay fees.
According to the widow, her husband, a retired soldier, decided to take up a community policing job to help protect the community from hoodlums and other criminals, but he was murdered in a cold blood in June.
“My husband was murdered in Akerele, Agege, on June 19. He was the commander of the community-policing unit in Akerele, where he was trying to keep the community safe,” she said.
She explained that some people were partying during the COVID-19 lockdown and her husband went with the police to tell the people to observe lockdown and COVID-19 protocols.
“In the process, one of the celebrants who was angry stabbed him with a knife in the presence of the police. Till today, no arrest has been made. They just wasted a young man and children’s future. That is why I am begging the government to wade into the matter, so that the children will not become a burden to society. Whichever way government and well-meaning Nigerians want to help the children and I, let them do so before the children go astray,” she said.
