By Izunna Okafor, Awka
In what could be best described as a shocking and heart-rending tragedy, a school teacher, Mrs. Faith Nwoye, has flogged a seven-year-old child to death in Anambra State.
The primary-2 school child, Henry Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, was said to have died in the early hours of Wednesday, May 22, in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital, where he had been receiving treatment since after the teacher flogged him to coma on Monday.
Recall that the Anambra State Government, through the State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, earlier this week, shut down the Landmark International School, Mgbakwu, in Awka North Local Government Area of the State, following the report that a teacher in the school flogged a child to coma.
The Commissioner also called the teacher, Mrs. Nwoye and the school’s proprietor, Mrs. Promise Ilo, for questioning regarding the incident, and during which it was also discovered that the school itself is illegal and has been operating surreptitiously with some group of quacks engaged by the proprietor.
It was also during the questioning that the teacher claimed that the child stole his fellow pupil’s buns, which made her to start punishing him. She also admitted to hitting the child, but claimed that it was not as bad as people were saying, adding that it was the handiwork of the devil, as she didn’t know what came over her.
The Commissioner said at the time of the questioning that the doctors revealed that the child had just 20% chances of survival, as he was badly injured, unconscious, and had been in the ICU for long, struggling and battling for his life.
The narrative, however, took a sad turn on Wednesday at the hospital, as the little child could no longer withstand the pains or sustain the struggle for life, hence, his demise and journey to the great beyond, all the way from his school.
Confirming the sad story in an interview with this reporter, Izunna Okafor, on Thursday; Commissioner Chuma-Udeh described the incident as very unfortunate, touching, and shocking at the same time.
Recounting how she earlier visited the child in the Intensive Care Unit and the condition he was in; the Commissioner, who could not hide her feelings, also utterly condemned what she described as the carelessness and heartlessness of the teacher, which have culminated to such a painful death of the promising young boy.
She also took to her social media handle to mourn the little, writing thus: “He was a boy …like any other, with hopes and aspirations. He went to school for a better future but met gruesome death at the hands of the people who were supposed to help him achieve his life ambition.
“A quack teacher in an illegal school bludgeoned him to death. We mourn a life nipped in the bud! We mourn Henry Chukwuemeka Okonkwo! We mourn and we seek justice!”
While affirming that the matter has now graduated into murder case,
Commissioner Chuma-Udeh also revealed that the teacher, who was also said to have earlier mercilessly hit another school child with mop-stick that same day in the school, has been handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution, to serve as deterrent to others.
She also confirmed that the school was operating illegally, adding that she has repeatedly warned against bludgeoning school children, which she described as a serious crime.
While warning other people operating illegal schools anywhere in the state and the people harming school children in the name of punishments, to refrain from such, the Education Commissioner, who emphasized that Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration has zero tolerance for such things, also warned that people indulging in them would face severe consequences.
She further prayed for the peaceful repose of the little child, Okonkwo, while also sending words of consolation to his family members and friends.
It would be recalled that another school child, Miss Chidimma Ukachukwu, aged 12 years old, was also similarly flogged to death in the Anambra State in 2012 by her teacher in an Awka-based secondary school, for failing to do her assignment.
