I’d Give My Son N60, 000, But It Won’t Last Him a Week -Sylvester Oromimi

I’d Give My Son N60, 000, But It Won’t Last Him a Week –Sylvester Oromi.; this was part of the revelations of Delta-based businessman, Sylvester Oromimi, speaking about the death of his son, Sylvester Jnr, a pupil of Dowen College, Lagos.

The senior Sylvester in an interview with Punch newspaper narrated some other distressing details surrounding the death of the 12 year old boy; excerpts:

My late son’s name is Sylvester Oromimi Jnr. I gave him my name. Sometime in October this year, my son complained that they (school authorities) put the senior and the junior students in one room. So, these senior boys, whom he shared a room with, would harass him and physically assault him. Each time I gave him money for upkeep – most times, N60,000 – it would not last up to a week. He would call home and start crying that he was hungry and needed more money. I was no longer comfortable. ‘What is really happening to this boy in that school?’ I kept wondering. When I asked him, he refused to say anything. He always acted like he was being threatened not to talk. We kept on buying more provisions. They would steal his clothes and his money. He started keeping his money with his hostel master, one Mr Ahmed.

Another time, these senior students cornered him and asked if he had seen the private parts of his elder sister who had just passed out of the school. They told him to describe what her private parts looked like. He said he had not seen that before and could not give any description. They started to torture him. When the beating became too much, he then said that he had seen the sister’s private parts, so they would stop beating him. Those were the first instances.

He first told his younger sister (also a student in the school) about it. The younger sister then called her elder sister, who had just passed out of the school, and reported that Sylvester was behaving funny and it seemed like some people were beginning to influence him. So, the elder sister called him and scolded him, wanting to hear his own side of the story. He told the sister that they beat him. She asked, “Who are ‘they’?” He mentioned their names. He said that was the reason he said he saw her nakedness so that they would stop beating him.

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News had filtered around the school that Sylvester said he had seen his sister’s private parts and all that. It was really embarrassing, which was why the elder sister called a relative who went to the school on the day of a midterm break. When the relative picked Sylvester up, she found out from their conversation that some seniors had beaten him up. But when the elder sister was there, we didn’t get any such reports of beatings.