How 3 students died in Queens College in 2017 – Senate

Principals, old students give chilling accounts of decay in school

Senators on Monday listened with rapt attention, as stakeholders of Queens College Lagos, gave chilling account of how power tussle between the authorities of the school and the old Girls Association led to the death of three students of the school in 2017.

This took place during a Public Hearing conducted by the Joint Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), and Health on poor living condition in Queens College Lagos, leading to the death of three students in February, 2017.

The Senate had ordered the Public Hearing after adopting a motion which detailed the root causes of near collapse of sanitary condition at Queens College, occasioned by poor health facilities, dilapidated school facilities, overcrowding of the school as well as lack of rapid response to health challenges by the authorities of the school.

The Senate had earlier been told that over population and poor sanitary conduction in the school had led to the death of 3 students of the school at different dates, as the affected students include, Vivial Osuinyi, February 14, 2017, Bitha Itula February, 22, 2017 and Praise Sodipo, March 30, 2017.

In his remarks during the Public Hearing, a former principal of Queens College, Dr Mrs Lami Amodu who served between August 2015 and February, 2017 recounted to the Joint Committee that the students died not because of collapse of sanitary condition of the school, but because of negligence by the authorities caused by politicization of issues in the school.

Dr Amodu told the Public Hearing that the Old Girls Association of the school, who she said had constituted itself into an authority, should hold the blame for the decay in the school and the muzzling of the school authorities towards better performance.

She recounted that the affected students did not die at the same time but at different times, an indication that their deaths were not directly connected with the poor living condition of the school, but by undue interference in the programme of the school by the old students.

Dr Amodu alluded to a case in which some unidentified members of the Old Girls Association sneaked into the school premises in January, 2017 and went to the school’s kitchen and borehole facility without any stated mission.

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She said the unwanted guests disappeared before they could be sighted, stressing, “One week later, on January 31, our girls started stooling and vomiting massively. This was prior to the death of the students.

She said the Old Girls Association members had picked a quarrel with her on her boldness in effecting an order to move their Secretariat out of the school’s premises, after they were indicted in a sex scandal.

She said, all along the Old Girls “Were infiltrating the system, running parallel administration while constituting security challenges. And for having the courage to move them out of the school, they vowed to get me out of Queens College and out of my job, boasting on ability to use their connection in the corridors of power to achieve that.”

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki in his opening address expressed dismay on the poor living conditions at the Queens College, Lagos and the sudden death of three of its students, vowing that the Senate will do all in its capacity to bring to book those found culpable of the rots.

He said: “We must see to it that all those found culpable are brought to book, punitive actions taken as may be necessary and remedial measures put in place to ensure this never happens again. We lost three promising girls, Vivian, Bithia and Praise. They had so much to live for and we owe it to them to ensure that justice is done.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Magatakarda Wamakko in his address vowed that the Senate will deploy all within its capacity to use information obtained during the public Hearing to correct the anomalies in Queens College that led to the death of three of its students, while also focusing attention on other unity schools across the federation.