4-year-old BrickHall pupil dies after teacher asked him to “sneeze it out” in the toilet while choking 

Four-year-old Miguel Ovoke was dropped off at Brickhall School by his mother on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, only for her to be called back to the school over an emergency. The emergency turned out to be the death of her son. 

The school, located in the Cadastral Zone B11, Kaura, Abuja, claimed the pupil died as a result of a seizure.

However, a source told West Africa Weekly that the mother gathered from another pupil who witnessed what happened that Miguel was told by their teacher while having something like a seizure to go and “sneeze it out” in the toilet, where he later died.   

“The mother dropped Miguel off at school in the morning, only to receive a call from her husband, who was in Aba to buy goods, informing her that Miguel’s school had called him to come. So the wife quickly rushed to the school, only to find out that Miguel was dead. 

The school claimed that he had experienced a seizure and died, but she was told by other pupils who saw him dead in the toilet that they had informed the teachers he was having a seizure. However, the teachers told the 4-year-old boy to go and ‘sneeze it out’ in the toilet, where he died,” a source with knowledge of the issue revealed.

Demanding to know the actual cause of her son’s death, the mother requested to see the school’s CCTV footage, but the school did not allow her. After she reported the matter to the Garki Police Station, the school told the DPO the footage had crashed.  

“When the mother requested CCTV footage, they refused to provide it. However, with the intervention of the Garki DPO, they claimed the footage had crashed. Only today’s footage crashed while others were working. 

“The footage showing what happened to Miguel is not there, which clearly implies they have wiped it. They even blamed the mother for reporting the matter to the police. The school has failed to report the matter to the police,” WAW gathered yesterday. 

Meanwhile, the death certificate of the late Miguel, which Dr Akinwande Ajayi signed for the Medical Director of  Excel Specialist Hospital & Fertility Centre, Abuja, revealed he was rushed to the hospital by teachers at 11:00 am on account of “aspiration on meat while feeding at BrickHall Schools.”

However, when examined and dilated, Miguel was “non-reactive to light, impalpable peripheral pulses, BP not recordable, no cardiopulmonary activity, Nil respiratory excursions, and silent chest,” the certificate said. 

All efforts to revitalise the boy were unsuccessful, and they confirmed he was brought in dead.  

Senator Joy Emodi is allegedly the founder and chairman of BrickHall Schools. She was a member of the 5th and 6th Senate and served as Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on National Assembly Matters. 

Efforts to reach the head of the school, Gloria Ijezie, were unsuccessful, as she has yet to respond to calls or text messages.

Read: EU adopts human rights resolution to repeal Female Genital Mutilation ban in Gambia

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