Encomium
Nigerians have reacted to the trending case of a junior secondary 1 student of Lekki British International School who was planning to poison his classmate because she topped the class in first and second term. Stating their disappointment over the step taken by the management of the school, they labeled it as unreasonable.
According to Opeyemi Kareem, “I will blame the school first. Such a child should not be allowed to stay more than a minute in the school premises after the incident. His parents should be apprehended as well. He must have learnt the act from somewhere, that boy cannot be in a perfect state of mind. He should be taken to rehab and they should forget him there till he is 18 years old. He is evil, a devil incarnate, a murderer in the making.”
Christy Udogu also spoke with encomium.ng: “They should apprehend him and investigate the case. His parents should be interrogated as well. He shouldn’t be allowed to finish his exam, how would he know the gravity of what he has done?”
Opeyemi Afolayan also did not spare the child. She said: “He should be handed over to the police, they should expel him from school. There should be a proper background check, there might be more to the case than what we have been told. But he must not go unpunished.
“Such a child should not be spared. The Bible says, spare the rod and spoil the child. In this instance, a lot of harm would be done if the situation is not well handled. The boy must be allowed to realise the gravity of his offence, he should be taken to rehab and spend at least a year there. He should never be admitted to that school again and I would advice the parents of the victim to withdraw their daughter. I will advice them to take her to a therapist so that the incident would not have a negative effect on her. The school also needs to be charged for laxity. It means no student is safe anymore. How did the boy have access to a lab to the extent of taking sulphuric acid and ethanol without the knowledge of the school authority? It is better for them to look into the case before it is too late”.
The trending story is that a junior secondary school pupil 1 of Lekki British International School, Lagos, allegedly made an attempt to poison his 11-year-old female classmate, for beating him to the first position.
The 12-year-old reportedly sneaked into the school’s laboratory, stole sulphuric acid and ethanol, which he poured in the water bottle of his classmate.
The incident was said to have taken place on June 14, when the school was planning for the third term examinations.
He was caught by two students, who reported him to the school management. When questioned, he reportedly admitted committing the offence, saying that he was envious of the girl for beating him to the first position in the first and second terms.
Later on, conflicting reports trailed the response of the school management to the issue. Some saying the boy has been expelled, while others say he was pardoned.
However, a member of the victim’s family said on Wednesday that despite the boy’s confession, the school allowed him to sit for the third term examination.
Abimbola Ololade Oligbinde, in a Facebook post, said that the aunt of the victim alleged that the boy was still in school.
According to Oligbinde, “The school is protecting the potential murderer and threatening the victim.”
In the post, she included a statement purportedly written by the victim’s aunt. It reads: “It will amaze you that the school in question still has the boy in school…no mental case assessment, he was allowed to write the very same exams he had tactfully planned on executing his classmate for so that she doesn’t take the first position again.
“One would think that the school authorities will be very concerned about what is going on in the mind of this child and immediately remand him to psychological and psychiatric help!
“But alas the parent of the victim is being accused by the school management of wanting to destroy the life of the boy by asking that he be expelled and made to write an apology. An apology came after one week of the incidence after it was vehemently demanded [for].
“I am appalled at the rot and decay of any form of value system that has exhumed from one of Nigeria’s supposed best schools. Lekki British International School.”
– SHADE WESLEY METIBOGUN for encomium.ng
