Controversy has trailed the death of a pupil of Dowen College, Sylvester Oromoni (Junior), in the Lekki area of Lagos State.

While a family member alleged that the Junior Secondary School 2 pupil died from the injuries he sustained during an assault by colleagues who wanted to initiate him into cultism, the school claimed he died after sustaining an injury during a football match.

Oromoni’s death became public knowledge after a family member, identified as Perri, posted messages about the incident on social media.

Using his Twitter handle @Perrisonoromoni, he claimed that before his cousin died, he identified five pupils of the college who brutalised him for refusing to join a cult.

He noted that Oromoni suffered internal injuries afterwards, and died while receiving treatment in a hospital.

“This is my 12 years old cousin that was beaten to death at a school that cost over N1m. They tried to put him in a cult, he refused and they killed him. Secondary school o.

“He refused to blend and they literally beat him to death; it’s a boarding school in Lagos. They called my uncle that he wasn’t well, so he went there, took him and admitted him to a hospital in Warri. That’s where he passed on, but confessed that they tried blending him into a cult. Dowen College is a disgrace. He mentioned five names before passing on yesterday.

“They called my uncle that he got injured playing football. Reaching the hospital, it was confirmed that he was bullied and beaten up, causing internal damages,” he wrote.

Perri had yet to respond to further enquiries from our correspondent as of the time of filing this report.

However, a member of the school management, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told PUNCH Metro that the victim only complained of leg pain before his parents picked him from the school last Tuesday.

She said, “Indeed the boy passed on while he went home from a leg injury; that was all he complained about after playing football until Sunday night that he mentioned that he was beaten. Other members of their family came to the school and they investigated and till today, we have no such evidence to back that.

“The report is malicious and false. I know they are grieving, but there is nothing like cultism or bullying in our school. He was home for over a week and nothing like that came up; his leg was just hurting him, so these allegations from all our investigations so far are not true; we have nothing to hide. We have invited the family and some members have come here. We’ve been very open and we will continue to be open.

“Nobody is saying any school is a saint, but as we stand today, the allegations are false and the rumours are malicious and unkind and it’s not fair because the family knows we’ve been working with them and letting them know everything we know. We are not resting and as we find out more, we will let them know.”

Responding to why the matter was not reported to the police, the official said nothing criminal was established to warrant a report to the police.

“We didn’t report to the police because we don’t have anything they can work on, except if the family wants to report from their side. But on our side here as a school, if we know of anything that is criminal, it is our responsibility to do that; but we haven’t found any such thing,” she added.

(The PUNCH: Text, excluding headline)

Update news