Dowen College: Celebrities React To Death Of 12-Year-Old Pupil

Celebrities have begun to weigh in on the tragic death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, the Dowen College student who unfortunately lost his life after alleged torture and bully by fellow students of the school.

The tragedy, which is currently trending on social media with the hashtag #Justiceforsylvester, came to light after the cousin of the deceased @perrisonoromoni on Twitter posted pictures announcing that he had died after being “beaten to death at a school that cost over 1 million naira”.

The twitter user also posted a video of Sylvester in pain, crying and mentioning the names of some fellow students, presumed to be the alleged perpetrators of the torture.

The video shows the deceased crying severely and bleeding from the mouth, while mentioning the other students’ names.

Stars like actress Adesua Etomi-Wellington, journalist, David Hundeyin and musician, Ayra Starr have called for investigation and for the school, Dowen College, to be shut down.

Adesua took to her Twitter saying, “Quick question. Is Dowen College still not going to give Sylvester’s family a real explanation about what happened to their son? I don’t want to hear any football story. Do they really think this is going to go away? Somebody’s child”.

Ayra Starr called for the school to be shut down pending proper investigation of the matter.

She tweeted, “Shut down the whole school until this has been investigated thoroughly, we can’t keep allowing issues like this to be swept under the rug, please let’s do this for Sylvester”.

Journalist, David Hundeyin, said expensive schools in Nigeria have controversial ideas about child rights, school bullying and assault.

“Expensive schools in Nigeria have extremely problematic ideas about child rights. school bullying and assault. They are expensive, but they are operated and staffed by Nigerians nonetheless. If a school like Dowen is culpable, they will never admit it,” he tweeted.

Actress Caroline Danjuma said her son plays Rugby and has hurt himself many times but he never looked as bad as Sylvester did before he died. She was referring to the statement which Dowen College put out today alleging that the injuries sustained by the deceased were football injuries.

She said in an Instagram post: “I am very much interested in the out come of the situation at Dowen college. My son plays Rugby, he has bruised himself badly SO many times, My son never looked as bad as that boy looked before he died. The school should shut down till investigations rules them out.

“It is insensitive to act like nothing happened. Why didn’t the hospital send him to ER with immediate attention? How do you send a child to school and he comes back dead. This country is so slow and uncaring,” she said.

The cousin of the deceased @perrisonoromoni, who brought the issue to social media, said on his Twitter account that Sylvester’s father was told that he was injured playing football but upon getting to the hospital, it was confirmed that he was beaten and bullied.

“They called my uncle that he (Sylvester) got injured playing football. Reaching the hospital, it was confirmed that he was being bullied and beaten up causing internal damages”, he said.

He posted the names of the fellow students which the deceased called while writhing in pain.

“Anybody that can kill me should kill me now, my brother won’t die for nothing, Anslem Temile, Micheal Kashamu and Benjamin Favour and Dowen College, just know he called your names before he died,” he said.

Meanwhile, the school released a statement, alleging that Sylvester was injured playing football and the nurse administered first aid after which he was discharged. The statement said preliminary investigation showed that there was no fighting, bullying or any form of attack on the boy.

“There were no reports by Sylvester himself, his sister who is also a student or any other students, prefects, house parents, medical staff or any of the management staff about any fighting or bullying incident”, the statement read.

The statement said the doctor followed the laid down procedure by inviting Mrs. Oromoni to take Syłvester home for further treatment, adding that the school has a cordial relationship with family of the deceased.

“The resident doctor followed the laid down procedure by inviting Mrs. Oromoni to take Syłvester home for further treatment after initial treatment by the school’s medical staff. The school has a very cordial relationship with the Oromoni family as Sylvester is the fifth child of the family Dowen College has the privilege to train, including his elder sister who is currentily a student at the school”, the statement said.

They described the account Sylvester’s cousin gave on Twitter as “wild social media tales”.