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The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education, has asked management of Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos, to furnish it with a detailed report of how two female students died as a result of alleged outbreak of diarrhoea in the school, recently.
Government’s directive was convoyed to the Principal, Dr. Bola Are.
Dr. Are declined to speak with Daily Sun at the school premises, yesterday.
Director of Information and Press, Mrs. Chinenye Ihuoma confirmed the query and also disclosed that the principal is expected to submit a report to the Director of Basic and Secondary Education in the ministry.
Mrs. Ihuoma described the situation at Queen’s College as “a health-related issue which the Ministry of Health is handling, after the visit of the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole.”
She also disclosed that the school is being cleaned up, ahead of resumption.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, said during a briefing on Monday that the state government would make public findings, the investigative report of its medical team.
Two boarding students died few days ago, after they ate spaghetti cooked in the college refectory and drank water from the school’s storage system. Both vomited and stooled for hours before they were rushed to hospital. They died on different days.
In a related development, students and even staff have accused the nurses in charge at the college sickbay of not responding quickly to health issues involving the students. They said the nurses failed to inform the management about the large number of students vomiting and stooling until some parents came to the college.
A senior staff in the college informed Daily Sun that the ministry has demanded a detailed report on the incident from the principal.
“The principal has briefed the Director of Basic and Secondary Education of the ministry about the situation. She is expected to send a written report to Abuja about the health problems which led to the death of two students,” the staff said.
A parent who came to pick her daughter, as well as assess the situation wondered why the school’s management and the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) would “gag parents and students from revealing what happened.”
Several cars were spotted waiting to take students home after their examinations, in line with an earlier directive from health officials investigating the source of the diarrhoea outbreak.
Daily Sun visited the college, yesterday and learnt that the principal held meetings with some staff and union leaders about the situation as well as the report demanded by the ministry.
When the principal was informed of Daily Sun’s request for an interview, Dr. Are, through her secretary, bluntly refused to speak with the newspaper and insisted she was busying attending to important issues.
Also, the officials of the college PTA declined to talk when Daily Sun visited their office.
During the visit of Daily Sun, some staff and students complained about the attitude of the nurses in charge of the sickbay. It was gathered when the vomiting and stooling was brought to their attention, they accused some staff of over pampering the students.
‘’Government and the college management need to do something about the nurses at the sickbay. They need to be proactive in handling situation like this but the failed. The nurses refused to allow some the students’ home to seek for better medical attention and also failed to alter the management on time when students started to vomit and stool,’’ said a male staff is aware of the situation.
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