The Osun State Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state accused each other on Tuesday following an incident of suspected food poisoning that resulted in about 18 pupils receiving treatment in a hospital.
The victims, reportedly pupils of James Primary School B, Osogbo, Osun State, received treatment in hospitals on Monday after developing complications associated with the mid-day meal served to them under the government’s free school feeding program.
Videos of the affected pupils on hospital beds circulated on social media, causing panic, especially among their parents, in the aftermath of the incident.
Journalists were not permitted entry to the school on Tuesday, as officials indicated that the pupils were in the midst of their first-term examinations.
Recounting the events that led to their illness, a victim explained that they were served rice with egg, and as a result, they began to experience diarrhea.
Mothers of the victims, as seen in the video, mentioned that they detected a foul smell from the eggs served to their children when the youngsters returned home from school on Monday.
They said their children started stooling not long after returning from school, raising concerns about the food they were served by the vendor. They demanded an investigation into the development to prevent reoccurrence.
During discussions with newsmen on Tuesday, Osun State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Dipo Eluwole, pondered why only about 11 out of over 100 pupils served the food, all living within the same compound, were the ones affected.
Eluwole, noting that the affected pupils were found writing examinations when officials from the ministry visited the school on Tuesday, further clarified that after completing their exams, parents refused the government’s plan to have them examined at a public hospital.
He said, ‘Over a hundred pupils ate the food. But about 11 out of them, who are living in the same compound were those that were said to be affected. On getting to the school on Tuesday, we met the affected pupils writing examination. After their exam, we told them that we were moving them to a hospital for further checks, but their parents refused the offer.’
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‘We recorded that scene. When I was told what the parents of the affected pupils said, I mandated the officer in charge of the school to release the pupils to government officials and they were taken to UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. After they were examined, the doctors told us that nothing was wrong with them.’
‘One of the pupils has malnutrition. After she was examined, we were told that the only food that particular pupil eat daily is the one government serves them in school. The girl is malnourished. We told the hospital to admit and treat her for malnutrition. We however warned the hospital to ensure that they keep an eye on her so that opposition party won’t kidnap her and blame it on the government.’
‘We interviewed some of the parents and they said one Boda Wasiu asked them to say all they said on camera yesterday (Monday). They said nothing affected their children. We don’t want the person who gave us that hint to be tagged. But we will want the said Wasiu to be apprehended and answer questions regarding what they claimed he did. We will not want to mention the source so that they will not attack her. That Wasiu is a card-carrying member of APC. They just want to tarnish the name of this administration.’
While addressing the incident, Mr. Tajudeen Lawal, the Osun APC chairman, admonished Governor Ademola Adeleke, urging him to stop endangering the lives of school pupils with substandard food provided by vendors under the school feeding program.
Lawal, in a statement obtained in Osogbo, declared that the incident was a result of the lackadaisical approach of the person in charge of affairs in the state.
The state APC chairman said, ‘The humanity in me became uncomfortable when one of the mothers of the victims gave an account of the state of his child that immediately his son came back from school, he started smelling an offensive odour of rotten eggs. Is it true that only miserable N64 was budgeted for each pupil per meal? Is it true the government of Adeleke pays N10,000 per month to each O’Meal vendor?’
‘If these allegations are true, then Governor Adeleke must have a clear conversation with his Creator. How would the food vendors be dedicated when they are paid peanuts and are not supplied with the right food supplies, at a time he himself budgeted billions for his own food and refreshments?’
‘The children affected are the future leaders of this country. If Governor Adeleke had been fed with rotten eggs when he was a schoolboy as it happened to innocent schoolchildren, would he have secured the opportunity to become the controversial governor that he is today?’
‘All the stakeholders should rise up to condemn the laissez-faire approach to governance by Governor Adeleke which was partly manifested with the suspected poisoning of the 18 school pupils with his ill-thought-out and substandard free school feeding programme.’