A 14-year-old pupil of Premiere Academy, Lugbe, Abuja, has died of an infection after a condom was found in her private parts.

The SS1 pupil, Karen-Happuch Akpagher, was believed to have been sexually abused before she was withdrawn from school by her mother, Mrs. Vihimga Akpagher, on June 19, 2021, for treatment. Karen, however, died two days later at a hospital in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja.

Speaking, Mrs. Akpagher said she had received a frantic call from her daughter a few days before her death, asking her to come withdraw her from the school because she was not feeling well.

She said although the school was unwilling to release the pupil and even argued that there was no need to fret, her daughter remained adamant and even cried that she wanted to go home.

“When I called the principal, he said my daughter would need to be isolated for five days (upon return). I felt let me go home since the school said they could take care of her. On my way home, my daughter called back through the school phone and asked where I was. I told her I came but turned back and she started crying.

“So, I got angry and asked her why she is stressing me since she would be returning home soon for holidays. So, she asked to speak with her uncle. She said, ‘you people don’t know why I am asking you to come pick me and you are leaving,” Mrs. Akpagher said.

Mrs. Akpagher stated that while she was still contemplating on whether to return to the school, she was informed by the housemother that Karen could hardly walk the day before and had been crying. The housemother advised that the young girl be taken to a hospital for proper check-up.

The distraught mother said she picked up her daughter but when the young girl was brought home, she was not her usual self and she seemed withdrawn.

“When we got home, she wasn’t her usual happy self. She switched off all the lights. She could not even look at us in the face… She slept throughout that day and ate some food.

“But by the early morning of Monday (June 21), I saw her condition had deteriorated and took her to the hospital and while examining her, the doctor saw a discharge, tested the discharge and saw that it was a condom that was left in her. They tested her urine and saw that it contained sperm and like that, infection and sepsis led to her death,” Mrs. Akpagher said.

When asked if her daughter revealed the identity of the person who defiled her, the bereaved mother responded, “I picked her up on June 19 and she died on June 21. She slipped into a coma and died. She was traumatised.”

She said she immediately challenged Premier Academy but the institution only promised to look into the matter.

She added that she immediately wrote a petition to the FCT Police Command and some employees of the school had been invited for questioning.

The distraught mother said her daughter had a dream of becoming a nurse having been diagnosed with diabetes at age nine but that dream had been cut short.

When asked if she is sure her daughter was defiled at the school and not at home, Mrs. Akpagher said, “My daughter was diabetic. If that thing had been in her for one month, she would have died long ago.”

Mrs. Akpagher said she got information that at least three employees of the school had been dismissed for sexual abuse but the school was more concerned with protecting its image.

Efforts to obtain the medical report from the deceased’s mother proved abortive as she said the hospital had refused to release it.

On a visit to the school, the Head of the Communications Department, Dele Onakoya, denied the allegation but admitted it was aware of the matter.

Onakoya said, “It is not true. But the school is aware of the matter which we are saying is not true. Why we would not like to comment much on the issue is that the matter is before the police and the right thing to do is allow them to dig deep and get to the root of the matter.

“Any response from the school might compromise their investigation. We don’t want to be seen as covering up anything. We trust in the ability of the police to get to the root of the matter and tell the public what actually happened,” he said.

When the Police Public Relations Officer, Mariam Yusuf, was contacted, she said, “We are investigating the matter.”

(The PUNCH)

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