From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Premiere Academy, Lugbe, Abuja, said on Thursday, that the autopsy result on the death of its SS1 student, Keren Akpagher, which is being bandied around is false let alone indicting the school.
The school management confirmed that the autopsy was conducted on Wednesday and result was yet to be released as a team of pathologists, led by the Nigerian police, only commenced their enquiry on Wednesday.
It, thus suspected that there could be a conspiracy between the family of the deceased student and hospital where the student died to, perhaps, to tarnish the image of the school and discredit the efforts made by the school in managing the health of the student which, unexpectedly, worsened resulting in the death of the student.
Acting Principal of the school, Mr. Chris Akinsowon, who addressed journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, noted that it will take some days before the autopsy result is out, even as he expressed concern that some groups have taken it upon themselves to spread fake news on the death of the student.
The Acting principal, who expressed grief over the death of Keren, confirmed that the student was released to her mother, Mrs. Akpagher, Vlhimga Vivien, in stable health condition on 19th May, 2021, only to be told after some days that her condition deteriorated.
He said: “The school only got to know about her hospitalisation in the morning of Monday, 21 June, 2021. We mobilised immediately and paid her a visit at the hospital on that day. It was with deep sympathy that we later heard of her demise early the next day, Tuesday, 22 June, 2021,” he said.
He, however, rebuffed earlier reports that the school refused to grant the mother of the deceased custody of her sick daughter, adding that the school was not informed about the alleged molestation and no medical report to that regard was sent to the school.
“Notwithstanding, the school has commenced an internal investigation to ascertain if this actually happened and who the perpetrators could be. No stone will be left unturned in our quest to get to the root of this matter, not only to bring the perpetrator to book but also to forestall such incident in the future. As an institution, the safety and security of our students are most paramount to us,” he said.
While commiserating with her parents over the tragedy, the school said Keren was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes Mellitus before admission into the school and had been on daily Insulin Injection during her stay in the school.
Akinsowon, who also denied the possibility of a rape case in the school premises, said the school has a lot of structures that have been used to checkmate and guide against any such occurrence.
He disclosed that the school has, at least, 54 CCTV cameras installed at strategic locations and were adequate for the landscape of the school to monitor activities of staff and students, stressing that their surveillance cameras capture every activity that goes on in the school.
“The school also leverages on adult supervision. In this regard, we have about 30 internal and external security guards who are positioned in different security beats. The school is structured in such a way whereby we have senior academic block and junior academic block, and we have not less than 56 teachers who are on duty during the school hours and all the different compartments of the school are with burglar bar,” he said.
He also raised the alarm that could be smear campaign targeting the school following the high academic performance of its students year-in year-out.
He appealed to Nigerians to wait for the autopsy result and ongoing investigation being carried out under the purview of the Nigeria Police to ascertain the cause of Karen’s death.
On the allegation that the late student was raped and a condom found in her private part, the matron of the school, Grace Salami, said such could not have happened in the school.
“The statement did not add up to me because a condom is a latex not meant to be decayed easily. If you tell me that a condom must have been in that enclosure for a long period of time, maybe for months or years.
“If it was actually decaying, we must not see spermatozoa there again. So, I was not convinced. That was why I pressed further to see the doctor and see all the items but that was not made available to us till date,” she said.