By Olusegun Olanrewaju
The Lagos State Police Command yesterday charged five students allegedly named as the suspected bullyists and eventual killers of the late Dowen College, Lekki schoolboy, Sylvester Oromoni, as well as three house masters.

Looking dejected, the students were taken to court by the legal department of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba.

The officer in charge of the legal department, Mrs. Yetunde Cadoso, said “this is a murder case, they have to take them to court.”

She added, “We cannot keep them in our custody, they are minors. We have to take them to court where they would be remanded pending the conclusion of the investigation.

“We cannot keep them in our custody, because we don’t want a human rights issue, where they would come tomorrow and say the police are detaining minors with adults. They would be remanded in a juvenile house, we cannot toy with the law, we have to do the right thing.

Immediately the officer in charge of the legal department said they will take them to court, the students’ parents’ attitude changed. They started weeping, while the children were also crying.

The suspected minors were brought before Magistrate A.O. Olatunbosun at Court 1, Yaba.

The plaintiff ’s counsel addressed the court for 30 days before the hearing of the case. The magistrate turned the plea down and granted 25 days to await the advice of the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) on the matter.

Meanwhile, following the billowing news erupting over Sylvester’s despicable death, a former staff and guidance counsellor at Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos State, has alleged that mismanagement and logistics could have contributed to the unfortunate incident.

According to him, the number of house masters in charge of the school’s hostels are inadequate, and that some staff knew there was a ‘time bomb’.

An online media platform, Sahara Reporters, yesterday quoted the former counselor, simply identified as Samuel, as having made the disclosure during a zoom meeting on the crisis rocking the school in the aftermath of the death.

The controversy which has continued to trail the death of the boy has triggered a high-wired probe to be supervised by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, in Abuja.

Samuel, who reportedly sought anonymity, according to an online post, stated that he had noticed, ‘over nine years’, that there were not enough house masters to monitor the children.

“My name is Samuel. I was a guidance counsellor for many years. I worked at Dowen College for several years, and one of the problems we had was that the structures were not purposely built for boarding housing. I might be referring to Dowen College.

“A situation where you have several floors, and no floor has a house parent monitoring the students. By the time you hear a sound, and you go upstairs, the seniors will change the story.

“That is what has been at Down College. From the first day, they moved the students out of the hired building into the permanent hostel. It was a time bomb waiting.

“Eventually, I resigned and went to (sic) because of that situation. The children are not monitored. And I should also add that.”

However, a woman interrupted ‘Mr. Samuel with a hard tackle, blaming him for not speaking, having known all these nine years ago.

“She fumed that her own son also experienced what Sylvester Oromoni Jnr went through. The woman lamented that her son was battered, tortured, and bullied, adding that everything Sylvester’s father said about the school was valid.

“I am sorry to say, why are you saying this now when a son has died? Why didn’t you say it before my child was bullied inside Dowen College? Why did you not speak out then? Now you’re talking.

“You knew this for nine years and you left the school. My son was a victim. They did to me exactly what they did to that boy (Sylvester Oromoni Jnr). They beat him, they were dancing around him. You keep quiet.

“What they did to Sylvester Oromoni, they did to my son. They entered the room. They put off the light. They brought my son to kneel. They put a bucket on his head. They were dancing around him like in an occult gathering. They were beating him. At the same time, they took out a
phone and recorded it, that video is here.

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“Mr Samuel and you are telling me you left Dowen because of the bullying. Why did you not say it then so that people like us would not make the mistake of taking our children there?

“I’ve been crying since Thursday since I saw this video. I’ve not eaten, I’ve not drunk; I’ve not slept since I saw this video. Our child has died. That boy was eleven years. It could have been my son that died. I was lucky. Sylvester wasn’t lucky,” the woman said.
She also mentioned some children notorious for this dastardly act, including a particular staff.