On May 2, Justice Oyindamola Ogala of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja will rule on the admissibility of treasury receipts for the use of Agege Stadium where the death of Chrisland School student, Whitney Adeniran, allegedly occurred.
During the continuation of the trial of staff and management of Chrisland School Limited, the Defence Counsel, Olukayode Enitan, SAN, to the third defendant proceeding, asked the Prosecution Witness, Mr. Yakubu Jubril, to identify some documents he claimed were government treasury receipts.
The documents were dated 7th November 2018, January 8, 2020, September 26, 2016, and January 9, 2023, for payments for the use of Agege Stadium.
The witness identified them as Lagos State Government Youth Sport and Social Development documents at Thursday proceeding.
The State Prosecution Counsel, Dr. Babajide Martins, objected to the admissibility of these exhibits, arguing that the witness was not the maker of the documents.
However, Enitan argued that the documents were relevant because the Lagos State Government collected payments for the use of the facility.
Other defendants’ counsel agreed with Enitan’s submission, stating that the evidence must be relevant to the issue.
The officer of the Lagos State Government identified these documents.
Mr. Yakubu also stated that the school did not report the incident to the station when the incident happened.
He added that apart from the Ministry of Education, the Police, Safety Commission, and DSVRT needs to know about the incident when talking in terms of safeguarding and child protection.
The witness admitted before the court that all facilities rendering services to children must report serious occurrences of an event.
Recall that on March 30, 2023, the state government arraigned the Cotton Candy vendor Ademoye Adewale, the school’s instructor Kuku Fatai, the principal of the school Belinda Amao, the school Nurse Victoria Nwatu, and Chrisland School Limited over the death of Whitney.
The defendants were charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless and negligent acts, preferred against them by the Lagos State Government.
The incident took place at about 1:00 p.m in Agege Sports Stadium, and the defendants allegedly killed Whitney by acting in a reckless and negligent manner that endangered her life.
According to the charge, the offence committed contravened Sections 224 and 251 of the Criminal Law, Lagos State 2015.
However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
