Anambra primary school pupil Henry Okonkwo brutally beaten into coma by class teacher dies 48 hours after
Little Master Henry Okonkwo, a pupil of the Landmark International School, Mgbakwu, in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State, who was reportedly beaten to coma by a teacher, has died.
Reports said the 8-year-old boy died in the early hours of Wednesday, May 22.
Earlier on Monday, the police had arrested the teacher – Faith Nwonye, 30, for allegedly beating the pupil into coma.
Nwoye had earlier been invited by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, to explain what led to the brutalisation of the child.
Chuma-Udeh had expressed sadness over the development, lamenting boy’s fate, who the doctors had given a 20 percent chance of surviving.
The commissioner said that the school was running illegally, which she described as illegal in the State, as well as the offence of beating a child mercilessly.
The teacher was invited alongside the school’s Proprietor, Mrs. Promise Ilo.
The development led to the temporary shutting down of the school, while an investigation was said to have begun.
The teacher, who admitted flogging the child, however, stated that the flogging was not as severe as the picture was painted.
The matter was handed over to the police for investigation, while the child was in the intensive care unit of the hospital, where he eventually died in the early hours of Wednesday.
Taking to her verified Facebook wall on Thursday, the commissioner lamented the death of the boy, saying he was a boy like any other, with hopes and aspirations.
She wrote: “He was a boy like any other, with hopes and aspirations. He went to school for a better future but met a gruesome death at the hands of the people who were supposed to help him achieve his life ambition.
“A quack teacher in an illegal school bludgeoned him to death. We mourn a life nipped in the bud! We mourn Henry Chukwuemeka Okonkwo! We mourn and we seek justice,” she added.
