Parents, school differ over student’s death in Abuja stream

The parents of a student of Kubwa 1 Junior Secondary School, Kubwa, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have expressed worry over circumstances that led to the death of their son, who reportedly drowned in a stream in the satellite town. The deceased, Judge Todd Victory, 13, a JSS 2 student, was said to have […]

The parents of a student of Kubwa 1 Junior Secondary School, Kubwa, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have expressed worry over circumstances that led to the death of their son, who reportedly drowned in a stream in the satellite town.

The deceased, Judge Todd Victory, 13, a JSS 2 student, was said to have left the school in the company of six other students on Wednesday, March 5, but never returned home.

Abuja Metro learnt that his corpse was recovered from a stream, located at Phase 4 area of the town, two days later, and was immediately buried by the river’s bank due to the state of the body.

Speaking on the incident on Wednesday, the school’s principal, Akinfolajimi Olayinka, said he first met with the parents of the deceased at the school’s gate around 8pm on the day he went missing, where they agreed to meet the next day, being Thursday.

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He said, “They called my attention over the matter after returning from their working place and discovered that the boy was not at home. They equally reported the matter to the Kubwa police division, from where some policemen visited the school the next day and met with the parents of the five other pupils that went to the river with the boy.”

He insisted that based on the class register, the boy had attended his class in the morning as well as in the afternoon of the day as indicated by the roll call book, meaning that the incident took place after school hours.

 On her part, the mother of the deceased, Rebecca Isaiah Jonah, had while speaking on Berekete family programme on Human Right radio, accused other pupils that went to the river with her son of playing a role in the circumstances that led to his death.

She alleged that her son was denied access to get out of the river by his fellow mates, who continued to march on his hands any time he attempted to climb out of the stream, until he got exhausted.

During the visit to the school by our reporter, the principal said all the pupils in question had been invited by the police from the Kubwa division in company of their parents where they were interrogated, before being released.

When contacted, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Kubwa, CSP Paul Lazarus, confirmed the incident, adding that investigation into the matter was ongoing.