17th May, 2012
At least four persons have been confirmed dead including the principal, Saint Joseph Senior Boys Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria in the last four months.
P.M.NEWS learnt that the 64-year old principal, Mrs. Deborah Iyabode, a food vendor, Omobowale Durojaiye, 57, a Mathematics teacher, Mr. Akinwumi and an SS1 student simply called Iyanu were the victims of what staff and students of the school described as mysterious deaths.
It was gathered that the principal and the food vendor died after brief illness while the Mathematics teacher died of appenditis. But Iyanu died in a motor accident near her residence.
As a result of these deaths, the prayer on the lips of academic and non-academic staff and students of the school is, “God, we don’t want death anymore in our school.”
P.M.NEWS gathered that Muslim and Christian clerics were invited to the school on Friday to pray against the untimely deaths.
In a chat with our correspondent, Fawak Onikoko, a grandson of the principal said: “Mama was ill for two weeks and was taken to the hospital. On the day she died, Mama woke up in the morning. She complained of weakness of the body and pains. She was taken to an hospital. But all efforts by the doctors to revive her failed. And so Mama died.”
She added that the late principal was first head of the junior secondary school before she was promoted to the senior secondary school.
Son of the food vendor, 16-year old Durojaiye said his mom was sick but nothing was diagnosed at the hospital.
She therefore returned home and resorted to taking herbs. But instead of getting better, the illness aggravated and Mrs. Durojaiye died.
In the case of Iyanu, the SS1 student resumed normal academic work with other students in the third term. She had written two of the papers in the examinations the students were writing before she died.
Meanwhile, all students of the school irrespective of their religion have turned ‘prayer warriors’ to ward off untimely death.
—Jamiu Yisa