WHITNEY ADENIRAN: CHRISLAND FAILED TO OBTAIN SAFETY PERMIT BEFORE INTER-HOUSE SPORT - WITNESS

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By Aishat Momoh. O.

Mr. Ariyo Waheed Wahab, a safety officer in the Lagos State Safety Commission, took the witness stand at the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, to testify that Chrisland School, did not obtain an event safety permit from the commission before the inter-house sports in February 2023 at the Agege Stadium.

The fourth prosecuting witness when led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecution, Dr. Babajide Martins, on Thursday, mentioned this before Justice Oyindamola Ogala on Thursday.

While giving evidence, Mr. Ariyo stated that his office was only made aware of the case on 13th of February, 2023 and immediately visited the scene of incident for observation.

He said, “The safety commission’s involvement in this particular case is to give our thoughts in terms of observation with the investigation that we carried out. We were made aware of the case on 13th of February, 2023 and we went on joint inspection with other officials from the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, alongside officials from Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), to the incident scene to observe what led to the incident leading to death.”

“When we got to the scene, most of the evidence had already been tampered with and so, we were left with taking pictures and interactions with the school management and eye witnesses.”

“It was in the cause of our findings that we discovered that the school failed to obtain permit from the Lagos State Safety Commission, no risk assessment was conducted, no ambulance service was available, poor emergency management system and there was no retainer hospital close to the event.”

When asked by the DPP if there were other visits apart from the initial first, Ariyo answered in the affirmative, saying that the other visit was done without the involvement of othe agencies in order to get more facts relating to the incident.

He added that after the visit to the incident scene, the school management was invited.

Ariyo explained further that the commission tried to simulate the claims made by the school which is that the “candy machine was not close to the scene”.

“On our second visit, we found out that the candy machine was close to the scene,” he said.

“We also found out that no restriction was made to the vendors as regards powering of their generating set, and as a result of these, there was high possibilities pf cable wires dangling around.”

“If risk assessment had been done earlier, recommendations would have been given.

Other findings is that the school bus was used in place of an ambulance which is not acceptable because, an ambulance is expected to have two doctors and three certified nurses depending on the size of event. In this case, we found out that, just one first aider which is the school nurse was the only one on ground.

It is also expected that an event like that should have a retainer hospital close to it. There was no safety marshall on ground because they did not apply for safety measures,” he said.

Dr. Martins requested for a further date to get a particular document before proceeding in the examination-in-chief and also to prepare the witness for further questioning.

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After taking the plea without objections from the defense counsels, Justice Ogala adjourned the matter till July 1, 2024 for continuation.

Hotjist reports that the Lagos State Government on March 31, 2023, charged Chrisland School, Opebi, its principal, vice-principal, and others with the death of 12-year-old Whitney Adeniran, who died on February 9, 2023 at the Agege Stadium.

Those charged alongside the school are Belinda Amao (Principal), Ademoye Adewale (a cotton candy vendor), Victoria Nwatu and Kuku Fatai.

They are standing trial for the alleged cause of death of Whitney during the school inter-house sports.

According to the Prosecution, the alleged offences violate section 224 and 251 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.