Senate demands investigation into death of toddler in Abia

The Senate on Monday urged the police to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of a toddler, Master David Udo, at a nursery school in Abia State.

This followed the adoption of a motion titled: “Urgent need to mandate schools to locate their creche and nursery classes to ground floors of their high-rise buildings and implement safety protocols presented by Senator from Lagos, Adebule Oluranti, at the plenary in Abuja.

Adebule, who led the debate on the motion, said that Udo died after falling from a building at the Emerald International School in Aba on October 24.

She said the incident brought to the fore the issue of safety in schools, particularly for babies and toddlers in creche and nursery schools in Nigeria.

“The ultimate is for investigations to cause state policy direction that will permanently prevent the recurrence of these heinous accidents,” she said.

READ ALSO: Senate summons IGP, Wike over death of Abuja ‘one chance’ victim

On his part, the Senator from Anambra State, Victor Umeh, said the death of the toddler had exposed negligence in the systems by relevant authorities.

He said: What we are suffering in this country is a lack of control and design approval.

“We cannot build a house that will not pass building approval building of schools must pass through the approval.”

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

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

The Red Chamber also urged the Federal and State Ministries of Education to enforce safety protocols in schools as enshrined in the National Policy on Safety, Security, and violence-free schools.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now