Senate Calls for Police Probe into Toddler’s Death in Abia School

The police should look into how a toddler, Master David Udo, died in a creche at a nursery school in Aba, Abia, the Senate has said.

The Senate made this call after adopting a motion on the “urgent need to mandate schools to locate their creche and nursery classes on the ground floors of their high-rise buildings and implement safety protocols, by Sen. Adebule Oluranti (APC-Lagos) yesterday in Abuja.

Oluranti, who moved the motion, said that Udo lost his life on Oct. 24 after falling from a building at the Emerald International School in Aba, Abia.

She said that the tragedy highlighted the issue of safety in schools, especially for babies and toddlers in creche and nursery schools in Nigeria.

She said that the aim of the investigations was to cause state policy direction that would permanently stop such horrible accidents from happening again.

She expressed worry that state policies or school operators and managers were supposed to show duty of care and ensure that babies and toddlers under their care were well supervised and stopped from falling off high-rise buildings on their premises.

She said that the case of Udo was sad and heartbreaking and required the Senate to carefully examine the safety issues and protocols in schools across the country, including school building and facility design and arrangement.

Sen.Victor Umeh (LP-Anambra) said the death of the toddler revealed negligence in the systems by relevant authorities.

He said that the country was suffering from a lack of control and design approval.

He said that building a house that would not pass building approval was not possible and that building schools must go through approval.

Umeh praised the sponsor of the motion, describing her as a nationalist who, though from Lagos State, sponsored a motion of human interest that occurred in Abia.

Sen. Abba Moro (PDP-Benue) also called for the proper design of school structures.

The Senate then observed a minute of silence in honour of the deceased.

The Senate also urged the Federal and State Ministries of Education to enforce safety protocols in schools as contained in the National Policy on Safety, Security, and Violence-Free Schools and its implementation guidelines.