Adamu Adamu, minister of education, says his
ministry has launched a fresh investigation into the
deaths of students of Queen’s College, Lagos, in order
to identify “those responsible” for the tragedy.

Lami Amodu, the principal of the school at the time of
the deaths, will now come under investigation.

Speaking with TheCable on Thursday, Adamu said the
first phase of the investigation only focused on what
caused the deaths, and denied insinuations that
Amodu was being shielded from justice.

Vivian Osuinyi, 13, Bithia Itulua, 12, and Praise
Sodipo,14, died of complications from gastroenteritis,
which they contracted from drinking contaminated
water at the school.

The students all died between February and March
2017.

However, as soon as investigation into the
circumstances of the deaths commenced, Amodu was
transferred to Edo state to head another federal
government college.

This fuelled speculation that she was being protected
by influential persons in government.

But Adamu explained that the initial investigation was
to establish the cause of the deaths not to apportion
blame.

The transfer of Amodu at the time of the inquiry, he
said, was coincidental as all principals were moved
around the same time.

Adamu said the ministry has launched another
investigation to establish who to hold responsible for
the tragedy, although he did not provide further
details.

“The (initial) investigation was done by this ministry in
conjunction with the ministry of health. And what they
discovered… the problem came about because of
overstretched facilities and some infections going into
the water system of the college,” he said.

He also said that the recommendations of panel “were
to make sure that these things are addressed and
eliminated; to clean up the water system and
especially the storage facilities. And to ensure hygienic
environment, let’s say in the kitchen and in the clinic
and so on, so as to ensure that the infection is
eliminated.

“There was no recommendation on [what to do] the
leadership. It is left to the ministry to take action on
those responsible. But the investigation that was done
actually earlier is about the cause of the thing not
blame-apportioning. The ministry is now probing the
leadership.”

TheCable, in partnership with the Cable Newspaper
Journalism Foundation (CNJF), has published an
extensive investigation into the Queen’s School affair,
reporting claims that Amodu was negligent in her
responsibilities to the students.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project
(SERAP) also petitioned the United Nations to
compel the federal government to investigate the
deaths.

Watch out for the full interview.

TheCable