An aircraft conveying President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides, landed in a primary school last Wednesday amidst pandemonium. TOYOSI OGUNSEYE writes that
over 12 students were injured in the stampede
It looked like a scene from a movie. Initially, pupils of Apostolic Church Secondary School, Ketu, Lagos, saw the aircraft hovering in the air and this was
enough to distract those sitting close to the windows from their early morning
classes.
The teachers in different classes that morning were curious about what their pupils were looking at, so they also looked out of the window and saw that the
plane was descending closer to the roof of the building.
No one needed to tell them to run. Once the teachers took to their heels, perhaps thinking it was air mishap, the students followed en masse. With loud
screams, everyone ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Some of the
students on the second floor of the school building attempted to jump down in a
bid to save their lives. One of them was an eight-year-old JSS1 student who
landed on her buttocks and could no longer stand. Eleven other students were
severely injured.
While this pandemonium was going on, the airforce plane with number NAV541 landed on the school premises. Heavily armed soldiers alighted from the aircraft
and surveyed the area without saying a word.
When the fleeing students and members of staff saw that the aircraft had successfully landed, they surrounded it, with curiosity written all over their
faces. The scene further attracted passers-by and people in the neighbourhood
who trooped to the school. The armed soldiers ignored the crowd, went back into
the plane and, after a few minutes, took off.
The injured students were then taken to the school‘s official clinic, Delta Crown Hospital, Ketu, where some of them were given first-aid treatment and
discharged. Two of the students were still in the hospital as at last Thursday,
including the young girl who fell from one of the two-storey buildings in the
school. An X-ray showed that the girl had no broken bones but she had a severe
tear in her private part, which had to be stitched.
The mothers of one of the children who were admitted in the hospital pleaded anonymity and said, “I have five children in that school. I thank God that my
daughter is alive and I‘m not crying. I am not ready to make a case of this or
even talk to the media because God has given me a reason to rejoice and not
cry.”
One of the people in the area who witnessed the incident identified himself as Yemi. According to him, he was about to have his bath when he felt the
building shaking. He said, ”I live just two houses away from the school. I had
an appointment that morning and was about to have my bath when I heard a very
loud noise outside; my room was also vibrating. So, I looked out of the window
and saw a plane moving towards the ground. I ran out of my house in my
boxers.”
Yemi added that he joined the crowd when the plane landed. ”When some of the soldiers alighted from the plane, they left the door slightly ajar. I saw some
soldiers inside, but some people whispered that the President was inside the
plane.”
It was gathered that the pilot and some of the crew muttered that the plane had ‘a problem.‘
The school authorities declined to make any comment about the incident. It was however gathered that Ketu Police Division, and the Lagos State ministries
of health and education visited the school and the hospital a day after
Jonathan‘s visit.
The Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Frank Mba, could not confirm SUNDAY PUNCH‘s findings. He said, he was not aware of the
incident.
The President was on a visit to the flooded areas in Ajegunle, Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area on October 20 when the plane made an emergency
landing in the school.
The Director, Public Relations and Information of the Airforce, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas said, “It was a flight to survey the area where the president was
visiting. It was not an emergency flight. The presidential aides were in it. We
were not aware that 12 children were injured.”
Efforts to speak to the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Ima Niboro, proved abortive. When our correspondent called his
mobile line on Friday night, he did not pick it. Neither did he respond to the
text message sent to him.
It could be recalled that a Cessna Model T9B training aircraft belonging to the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Kaduna State, crash-landed at
a village just outside Kano on May 2, 2010. It plunged into a farmland at Katoge
Village, directly behind the Science Secondary School at Dawakin Tofa, about 20
kilometres from Kano City.
Three occupants of the light training plane escaped unhurt and the aircraft was not badly damaged. Those on board the plane included the college instructor, Mr. Ozogwu as well as Akerele Ojo Olu and Jafar Suleman, who are trainees.
source punchng
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