FIJ
Relatives of Whitney Adeniran, a late 12-year-old student of Chrisland High School, Opebi, Lagos, chased out visitors from the school on Monday afternoon.
FIJ was on the ground to capture the moment Emmanuel Adesanya, Whitney’s uncle; Constance Christopher, Whitney’s aunt; and other relatives protested as people walked casually into the sealed compound.
Adesanya raised the alarm as he spotted a woman walking into the school with the permission of policemen and the security guards present.
Family protest entry of visitors. Video Credit: Daniel Ojukwu/FIJ
He said he had been denied entry in line with a directive from the Lagos State Ministry of Education for the immediate closure of the school.
His niece died on Thursday under mysterious circumstances after participating in an inter-house sports competition.
After his outburst, a man emerged from within the compound and said the people who were chased out were “visitors of the Awosika family,” and had come to sympathise with the school for the loss.
He neither gave his name nor say any other thing on the Awosika family.
When FIJ visited the school on Monday, our reporter observed that pupils were attending classes in the Chrisland Primary School, a facility that shares a fence with the closed high school.
A staffer of the school, who refused to disclose his name, told FIJ the primary school was opened because the school believed the ministry of education wanted only the high school shut.
He said, “The letter read ‘high school’, but we’re closing it (primary school) now. Parents are coming to pick their wards.”
This staffer refused to give more information.
FIJ observed parents driving into the school to pick their wards. The protesting relatives of late Adeniran hurled insults at the parents and slammed them for bringing their wards to school despite the closure.
