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Nigeria: School Building Collapses, Kills 13 Pupils
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Vanguard (Lagos)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Ola Ajayi and George Onah
Lagos
THIRTEEN pupils of Living Water Nursery and Primary School, Olomi, Ibadan were yesterday crushed to death by a collapsed wall in the school during a downpour.
Several other pupils, staff and proprietor of the school were injured, some critically.
This came just 24 hours after a woman attacked a month-old baby with acid at Abebi also in Ibadan.
Similarly, militants yesterday kidnaped a three-month old baby and her mother in Port Harcourt, and put a five million ransom on their heads.
School proprietor sustains spinal cord injury
The proprietor of Living Water Nursery and Primary School was said to have received spinal cord injury and he is now at the Adeoyo State Hospital, Ibadan.
An eye-witness said the fence of a nearby-house had collapsed on the school building which in turn gave way, trapping the pupils, staff and the proprietor. Several parents rushed to the school on hearing the news.
The Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, Miss Olubisi Okuwobi, said 13 children had been confirmed dead.
But at the scene of the incident only two bodies of the dead pupils were found. Others had been removed to an undisclosed mortuary.
Woman pours acid into month-old baby's mouth
Twenty-four hours earlier, a woman at Abebi area of Ibadan had sneaked into her co-tenant's room and poured acid into the mouth of the co-tenant's one month old baby. The baby's tongue and right jaw are now badly burnt, leaving him in severe pain.
The suspect, according to sources, appeared to have carried out the dastardly act on behalf of one of two men claiming paternity of the baby.
The man who felt cheated in the paternity row had allegedly sought the assistance of the suspect to kill the baby so that neither he nor the other man would have him.
On the fateful day, the mother of the baby called Yinka had gone to the backyard to perform some domestic chores when the suspect allegedly sneaked into the room where the innocent baby was having a nap.
She then poured the acid contained in a small bottle into the baby's mouth.
A few minutes after, the father of the baby entered the room and found the baby foaming in the mouth. He raised the alarm. He later saw the bottle containing the acidic substance on the floor.
The baby was rushed to Naomi Medical Centre, Oke-Padre.
When Vanguard visited the hospital yesterday, the doctor said the baby might be referred to a government hospital as he could not really say he was responding to treatment.
On the paternity of the baby, his mother who was initially reluctant to discuss the issue in the presence of her husband said the baby belonged to her husband with whom she now stays.
Mr. Mufutau Akanmu, the baby's grandfather, said his son married the mother "legally as all necessary bride price was paid to her parents. And the mother, when she was pregnant lived with us."
Contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the State Police Command, Miss Olubisi Okuwobi, confirmed it, saying two women were now in custody in connection with the incident.
Gunmen nab woman, 3-month-old baby in P-Harcourt
Meanwhile, a three-month old baby and her mother were kidnapped yesterday by gunmen in Port Harcourt, who are demanding N5 million from an initial demand of N20 million.
The woman, wife of a PDP councillorship candidate, Mr. Samuel Ejiogu, in Etche Local Government, was forcefully adopted along with her baby from their apartment, following which the men said they would harm mother and child if the ransom was not paid.
Speaking shortly after the abduction, Ejiogu told newsmen that the men called him and told him to cooperate if he wanted his family back and that "they first asked me to make N20 million available within two hours.
"They called about two hours later and told me that they had scaled down their demand to N10 million and that it was reasonable and small enough for me to produce but I told them that I did not have that kind of money.
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"After some time, they called back to say that the new amount being asked for is N5 million but I still told them that I cannot afford such money that I am not a rich man in any sense of the word.
All I am begging them is to release my wife and the child, at least for the sake of the three-month-old baby," he said.
Contacted, PRO of the State Police Command, Ireju Barasua said she had not been briefed on the incident but that she would contact the DPO of the area and inform Vanguard of the finding.
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