• Police arrest teacher for allegedly flogging a year-old baby to death in Delta

A teacher of Unic Vilos Montessori School, Maza Maza, Lagos, Eucharia Agu, has been condemned for flogging a two-year-old girl, Cherish Ohamadike.
 
According to the mother of the little girl, Ohamadike Faustina, she was flogged and left with bruises for not being able to pronounce letters S and I. But some days later, the child could not eat properly.

The family had allowed the head of the school, Anthonia Omowale to handle the matter first but nothing was forth coming on the case.

Chima Cornelius, who is Faustina’s brother said: “My sister told me that one of her children came back the other day bleeding from the nose. When she asked her, the girl said she was flogged on the head, she confronted the school and they denied it. This one they can’t deny because the marks from the flogging are there.

“The owner of the school, according to my sister, accused her of wanting to bring down her school when she reported to her.
 
“When my sister, confronted the teacher, she boasted that it wasn’t only the girl that was flogged. She said some other children were equally flogged 24 strokes each (children of below three years of age). And that she will flog them more that. This one is just testing.”
 
When The Guardian reached out to the mother of the girl, she asked: “How can she flog a two-year-old child 24-strokes of cane and the cane broke on her body because she can’t pronounce the letters I and S. “Che Che has not been feeling well. She was not in school for one week before the incident and her teacher was aware, she took her last injection on Saturday, February 5, 2022, and resumed school on Monday, February 7, 2022, the same day she was flogged.”
 
The woman added, “The owner of the school lied to me that she was not aware of the incident. It’s very bad, what if my daughter gave up immediately? The girl is going through pains and she can’t sleep because of the bruises on her back, she threw up any food given to her.
 
“I can’t afford hospital bills, so, there is a nurse treating her at home. My anger is that the teacher told me she’s going to flog my daughter again on her leg where nobody will see the marks, and the owner of the school told me that it’s just flogging.”
 
When asked why she didn’t report the case at the police station, she said: “We are poor, we don’t have money to prosecute any case. My husband is just a petty trader. I was told that it was not only my daughter that was flogged but my daughter was beaten severely.”
 
The Proprietress of the school, Omowale, claimed she heard the child crying in her classroom but she never thought it was a serious case. “I went to the teacher and she said she flogged the child because she was disturbing, I pet the baby and the mother came to ask what her daughter did when we got home because we are neighbours and I pleaded with her.
 
“The teacher apologised to the child the next day when she came to school, but she didn’t come on Wednesday and I asked after her. We were not aware she wasn’t feeling well before the day she was flogged.”
  
She said: “Her mother is my neighbour and I never knew it will go this far. The teacher has been suspended and I told her that she would bear the bill for the child’s treatment. I don’t know why they are trying to heighten this because the child is not looking sick. I reported what happened to the nearest police station on Friday, February 11, 2022, and I have begged her mother.”

MEANWHILE, the police in Delta State have arrested a teacher, identified as Mrs. Ogbo, for allegedly flogging to death a year-and-seven-month old baby of Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary School, behind Ibori Golf Club, Asaba.

The Guardian gathered that the baby, simply identified as Obinna, reportedly died a day after being flogged with cane by the teacher on the allegations that he was playing with water and messed up the ground.

When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, who confirmed the incident, said the police had arrested the teacher.

Edafe said: “I don’t want to say he was flogged to death, but all I know is that he was flogged by the teacher, after which he was taken to the hospital and a day after, he died.”