Children’s Day: Victims from Edo stadium incident not dead – CMD

By Monday Ajogun

The Edo Specialist Hospital has denied reports alleging that five pupils died during the Children’s Day celebration at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium, Benin on Wednesday.

Some students had fainted during the Children’s Day celebration at the stadium following a pepper spray by some bouncers to control an alleged unruly behavior by some of them.

The children were rushed to the hospital with reports on the social media later indicating that some of them may have passed on as a result of the incident,

However, the Chief Medical Director, Edo Specialist Hospital, Dr Anthonia Njoku denied the claim on Thursday in Benin, while addressing newsmen.

Njoku said health workers from the hospital were called in for an emergency response to the stadium and responded swiftly and appropriately to some of the children who were evacuated by ambulance to the hospital.

“Resuscitation measures started immediately and to God be the glory, we have no casualty, the children are all stable and we want to thank our governor for his continuous support.”

Speaking on why the children were seen on the floor of the hospital, Njoku explained that they placed them on the floor for an effective resuscitation which some of the children needed.

“We needed to put some of these children on hard surfaces to be able to resuscitate them, that’s why we even have some of them on the floor, our goal at that point was to make sure that there was no casualty.

“We want to use this medium to thank the governor for his passion for children,” she added.

In her response, the coordinator, office of the Edo governor’s wife, Mrs Edesili Anani, noted that she was at the hospital on a fact-finding mission concerning the incident.

“I have had a conversation with the CMD, the children are fine and they have been discharged and we are happy, I want to thank the management of the hospital for their swift response.

“The governor would have loved to be here, but he is out for other official engagements, he had directed that I should come on my fact-finding mission to see what is happening,” she said.

She, however, described what happened during the Children’s Day celebration as unfortunate but thanked God that response came fast, adding that safety of the children remained the priority of the state.

Also present at the hospital was the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr Andrew Iyamu and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs Ebomonyi.

(NAN)