Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Premiere Academy, Lugbe, Abuja, has denied reports that the autopsy result on the death of its SS1 student, Keren Akpagher, is out which indicted the school. 

The Acting Principal of the school, Mr Chris Akinsowon, denied the allegations at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Akinsowon said the autopsy result was yet to be released as a team of pathologists, led by the Nigerian police, only commenced their enquiry on Wednesday.

He added that the process would likely take some days before the result would finally be out, while expressing displeasure concern that some groups have taken it upon themselves to spread fake news on the death of the student. 

He said that the death of Keren was a shock to the school as the said the student was released to her mother, Mrs Vivian Akpagher, in stable health condition on May 19 only to be told after two days that her condition deteriorated. 

Akinsowon, who dismissed this allegations said that the deceased reported to the school clinic on June 17 with redness of the eye while her mother requested her released for medical attention.

He said that an exit was however granted the deceased to go home having being released to her mother in a stable condition.

According to him, the school did not refuse to grant the deceased permission to go home as this is what has been making round in the media, but investigations has commenced to unravel the truth.

“Our clarification is to state our findings in the ongoing investigation regarding Miss Keren Akpagher in last few weeks as a student in academic.

“Keren reported to the clinic on Wednesday, June 17 with a complain of a redness of the eye, her mother requested that she should be taken to the hospital to an optamologist on Saturday, June 19.

“ She was taken for this appointment in the morning and on her return to the school her mother further requested to take her home because miss Karin insisted on going home for the weekend.

“ She was release to her mother on Saturday afternoon in a stable condition. The school only got to know about her hospitalisation in the morning of Monday, June 21 and we mobilised immediately and paid her a visit at the hospital.

“It was with deep sympathy that we later heard about her demise early the next day, Tuesday, June 22. The school did not refuse to grant the mother of the deceased custody as she can see her daughter any time,” he said.

Akinsowon said that the school had commenced an internal investigation to ascertain if this actually happened and who the perpetrators may be.

“No stone will be left unturned in our quest to get to the root of this matter, not only to bring the perpetrator to book but also to forestall such incident in the future. As an institution, the safety and security of our students are most paramount to us,” he said.

While commiserating with her parents over the tragedy, the school said Keren was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes Mellitus before admission into the school and had been on daily Insulin Injection during her stay in the school. 

Akinsowon, who also denied the possibility of a rape case in the school premises, said the school has a lot of structures that have been used to checkmate and guide against any such occurrence.

He added that the school has, at least, 54 CCTV cameras installed at strategic locations and were adequate for the landscape of the school to monitor activities of staff and students, stressing that their surveillance cameras capture everything activity that goes on in the school.

“The school leverages on adult supervision, in this regard we have about 30 internal and external security guards who are positioned in different security beats. Thirdly, the school is structured in such a way whereby we have senior academic block and junior academic block and we have not less than 56 teachers who are on duty during the school hours and all the different compartments of the school are with burglar bar,” he said.

He also raised the alarm that could be smear campaign targeting the school following the high academic performance of its students year-in year-out. 

He appealed to Nigerians to wait for the autopsy result and ongoing investigation being carried out under the purview of the Nigeria Police to ascertain the cause of Karen’s death. 

Also reacting to the allegations is the School Matron, Mrs Grace Salami, who said that the deceased was admitted into the school in 2019 with Type1 diabetic.

Salami said that the deceased was managed by the school and had been on Insulin injection on agreement of the parent, noting that she was given the morning dose of the insulin before the school released her to her mother.

According to her, when I asked her mother when she called the school if she was giving her injection at home, her response was no.

“Karen was admitted into this school in 2019 in her JSS 2 class, she came in with a medical condition known as Type1 diabetic Mellitus, there is a medical form we give parents to fill when they are bringing in their children for us to have the medical base line date.

“ It was filled and signed by the mother and her doctor. From her history, the mother told us that she was diagnosed with diabetic at age 9 and she has been on insulin since then.

“ She takes this insulin twice everyday-morning and night everyday at a certain dosage , when she came into the school she came in with glucose meter we use to also monitor her blood sugar reading.

“ Initially we were doing it on daily basis as advised by her doctor then as her condition improves we were doing it every other day.

“But before that Saturday she left the school, we were doing it weekly as advised by her mother and her doctor since the blood sugar was under control.

Salami added that the deceased usually takes this injection 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. everyday since she came into the school saying that the school equally tried to manage her with diet too.

She said that the school was also managing the deceased in the area of her diet as she was usually given special diet different from what other students eat.

She added that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the school to change the school policy of isolating any child who leaves the school on medical ground for five days, after which the COVID-19 test could be carried out.

“On June 17, the policy of the school on health and when to call parent is if a child report to the clinic with any complaint, if it is something we need a medical investigation to be done we will do that and we will commence the child in treatment.

“ So if after 24 hours there is no improvement, we now call the parent or we take the child to our retainership hospital that is the National hospital.

“ So she came in on June 17 to the clinic to show me her red eye and she said her eye allergy has stated, I took a look at it and placed her on an eye drop.

“ But by June 18, I got a call from the mother to release her, and she was released on Saturday morning,” she said.

The school, which had graduated over 1,200 students in the last 15 years, mourn the demise of Karen.

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