A parent has said that her son had a faced a similar ordeal to that of the late Sylvester Oromoni as a pupil of Dowen College Lekki.
The mother shared her experience during a zoom meeting organised by the Concerned Parents and Educators’ network – group of about 200,000 parents and educators started by education branding specialist, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde on Saturday night.
The woman, who became emotional while a former teacher of the school who called himself Samuel said he resigned because the hostel’s multi-level building at Dowen College did not allow for proper supervision of the male pupils, chided him for not speaking up about his observations.
“I was a guidance counselor for many years. I want to say that I worked at Dowen College for several years. One of the problems we have with boarding houses today is that the structures are not purposed-built for boarding houses. I might be referring to Dowen College. Now a situation where you have severals floors and no for floor has a house parent monitoring the students. By the time you hear a a sound and go upstairs, the seniors have changed the story.
“From the first day they moved the children from hired buildings into the permanent hostel, it was a time bomb waiting.
“Eventually I resigned. I left there and went to A’ Hall because of that situation. The children are not well monitored. I shouldn’t say so much about a place I am not working.”
The agrieved mother then interjected: “Why why did you not say it since? Why are you just saying it now when a child has died? My son was bullied and almost died in Dowen College.
“Why did you keep this for nine years and then you left the school? My son was a victim. They did exactly what they did to Sylvester to my boy. They put off the light; they beat him; they were dancing around; they put a box on his head – seven of them. They forced my son to kneel down; they put a suitcase on his head; they were dancing like around him like an acoustic thing.
“At the same time they took out a phone and recorded it. That video online somewhere. Now you are telling me that you left Dowen because of the bullying. Why did you not say so that people like us will not put our children in that hole?
