Female Student Goes Blind In One Eye After Slap By Principal’s Secretary

14-year-old Iyanuoluwa Dahunsi, a Senior Secondary School 2 student of Bishop Philips Academy, Ibadan, Oyo State, reportedly got a slap from her principal’s secretary which made her go blind in one eye.

Tribune reports;

Anyone who sees the young girl would place his hands on his heart and sigh in pity. The teenager’s right eye is almost dropping out of the socket and looks like a half-cooked egg yolk-like substance, with the pupil like a small clog of soot on an egg yolk.

Before January 29, 2015, the girl’s eyes could be said to be perfect, going by the picture she took with her friends the same month when the school celebrated its 50th anniversary. But the tide changed against Iyanu and it seems she has lost an eye.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the event that led to the change in Iyanu’s life started when she was allegedly slapped by one Mrs Funke Fashina, said to be the secretary to the principal of the school. And what was her offence? The woman reportedly saw her and two other girls emerging from an unused room within the school building and enquired to know what they were doing there. Before they could reply, she landed a slap on Iyanu’s face first, and subsequently others.

The girl’s right eye was said to have developed a problem and had got worse, with the University College Hospital, Ibadan (UCH), saying that she would require a surgery. Iyanu told Sunday Tribune that she could no longer see with the right eye.

Narrating her experience to Sunday Tribune, Iyanu said: “On Thursday, January 29, students were having an Agriculture class, so those of us offering Food and Nutrition left the class and three of us went to stay in one of the rooms in the building. We saw our teacher from the window of the room so we wanted to step out to go and meet her. As we were about to leave the room, we saw the secretary to the Principal, Mrs Funke Fasina. She asked us what we were doing in that room but before we could explain, she slapped us one after the other. By the time I got home, my left eye had turned red and painful. I told my mother what happened but she dismissed me, saying that I would not have been slapped if I didn’t do something wrong. On Monday February 9, my mother followed me to school and the principal asked my mother to take me to the hospital.

We went to Catholic Hospital, Eleta, Ibadan and we were told to do the scan of the eye. By then, my eye had become bulgy and I was no longer seeing clearly. We went to St. Gregory’s Ultrasound Centre, Yemetu. From there, we went to the University College Hospital, Ibadan and I was told that I would undergo surgery. We were told to bring N300,000 as deposit. My parents have reported the case at the police station in Alakia Adelubi and the woman admitted that she slapped me.”

Iyanuoluwa said before the slap, she never had any pain or itch in her eye, so the report that she had a problem with her eye does not hold water. “Now I can no longer see with my right eye and I am going through a lot of pains,” she stated.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the case was eventually transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation, Iyaganku and was arraigned to court on Monday, March 9 for wounding. This was confirmed by the police’s spokesperson in Oyo State, DSP Adekunle Ajisebutu.

The magistrate who presided over the case granted the accused bail in the sum of N100,000 or surety in like sum as well as Levels 15 and 17 civil servants who would stand as sureties for her. The accused person, who could not fulfil the bail condition, was remanded in Agodi Prisons until Thursday March 12, when the bail conditions were reportedly perfected.

In a telephone interview, the Commissioner of Education, Prof Solomon Oladapo Olaniyonu, in response Sunday Tribune’s inquiries, said that it was a case involving two parties and the case has been charged to court. “They have taken the case to court and we have already suspended the lady. On the treatment, some humanitarian persons have been gathering money and I saw the Permanent Secretary this morning and he told me that the deposit had been gathered. The student is in UCH for treatment.”

On her part, the principal of the school, Mrs Iyabo Modupeola Ladepo, refused to make any comment, saying “We are not allowed to speak with the media as civil servants.”