Tragedy As Soldier Allegedly Frogmarches Student To Death

Queendaline Ekezie, a 15-year-old student of Army Day Secondary School, Obinze, Owerri, Imo State, has given up the ghost after two soldiers in the school allegedly snuffed the life out of her during a severe punishment.

The soldiers were reported to have asked her to frogmarch after she arrived late at school on Thursday at about 9 am.

The JSS3 student, who was said to have been exhausted after repeating the exercise several times, collapsed and was rushed to an army hospital nearby, where she was confirmed dead.

Her father, identified simply as Hyginus, on hearing the news, passed out and was rushed to a hospital in the community for treatment.

The development sparked outrage on social media as many condemned the army officer for human right abuse.

See some of the reactions by Nigerians that trailed Queendaline’s death below:

Zainab on Instagram said, ‘’this is so sad, Just because she got to school late? May her soul rest in Peace. Amin’’

‘’This is inhumane & sheer callousness!! It’s only in Africa children are rigorously abused which we call training, this has to stop! They have ears, functioning brains, they can be mentored, taught without being abused in any form. These children are delicate and fragile for crying out loud! This so-called training/punishment just induces unnecessary rebelliousness in them. Let’s be enlightened please’’. Visualsbykella said.

Another user, Temitayo Oyewole, said ‘’exhaustion killed her. The cause of the exhaustion was the excessive frog jumping. There’s only so much stress her health could take. She signed up for school, not military recruitment. Not everyone is in perfect health. Let the soldiers face the music’’, as he poured out in anger.

‘’If you attended CDSS Ikeja & Oshodi (I attended both) identify yourself. You all are the real heroes for surviving. It’s sad that some of these soldiers don’t take into consideration student’s health before dishing out punishment. It was a norm back in CDSS. Thank God we survived. I hope that this incident leads to a turnaround in how soldiers deal with students. Sad!’’ said Empexy.

Miss lotty said it is written in the bible that “When the wicked is on the throne, the people mourn.”

‘’ I did my teaching practice in this school, the Army had long taken their hands off the affairs of the school as requested by the school authority since it’s now a government-owned school. All through my 6 weeks stay there, soldiers never punished any student for lateness the teachers and school functionaries did. In fact there was no military man in sight except one old Army officer that is assigned there to protect lives and property. He has no business with running affairs of the school. I am kind of confused right now. May her soul Rest in Peace’’. Kwinree responded.

The remains of the victim was deposited in the Federal Medical Centre mortuary, Owerri.

Reacting to the development, the 82 Division’s spokesman and Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, said it would be premature to comment on the incident as the Imo State Ministry of Education had planned to issue a statement Thursday.