The grieving mother, who could not hold back her tears, made the revelation while addressing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.
She said she rushed her daughter to the hospital shortly after picking her from the school following the complaints of pains and weakness.
She also said the doctor while trying to administer drips on her decided to insert a urinary catheter because of her weakness but surprisingly found sperm discharge and condom left in her private part after a medical test.
The mother said, “All this story started on Friday, June 18, 2021, when my daughter sent a message and later called that we should come and pick her for medical attention that she has an eye infection.
“I told the school matron that I will come and pick her and she said if I pick her on return she will be kept in isolation for seven days. She said there is an alternative for me paying and the school bringing her to the clinic for treatment and take her back. That was the first time I will hear that because I have been taking her out even for medical checkup. I agreed to that and they brought her to me at Nisa Premier Hospital and they attended to her.
“She was brought in the company of a nurse and teacher and when it was time to go back with them she asked me, ‘Mummy, are you still leaving me to go back with these people’. I told her not to worry but to go and get her things together.
“On getting to school my daughter called again through the school phone that I should come and pick her and I told her that I came but the school did not allow me to come inside but when she was crying I got angry.”
It was at this point the mother put a phone call to the principal but she did not pick, it was learnt. It was also gathered that the principal later sent a text message that she should be released to her.
She explained that on getting to the school the security asked her to wait, that he would like to talk to the principal on phone while keeping her at the gate for more than over an hour. But the principal later came out with her daughter.
“I took my daughter home, but immediately we got home she wouldn’t eat; she just went and switched off all the light. The next day she came to me that she vomited and she laid in my room with me. The next day she asked for water and I noticed that she was not coordinated in her movement so I rushed her to the clinic.
“When we got there in the process of giving her drip they said because she was still weak they have to insert a urinary catheter in her and in the process they saw a discharge. They tested her and they found that it was condom and throughout her stay in the clinic even she was in semi-conscious state, she was shouting please let me go and urinate.”
Meanwhile, the leader of Coalition of Gender Based Violence Responders, Lemmy Ughegbe, lamented the incessant cases of sexual abuse in boarding schools in the country.
Ughegbe said, “Keren Happuch will not be a mere statistics when we are talking about sexual abuse victims who died and their perpetrators were not fished out. We will continue to mount pressure on government and police to account for this and we will take all steps legally possible. The Coalition is poised and determined, we have gathered our evidence and we have enough evidence on ground that can warrant if a government is responsible to shutdown Premiere Academy.
“However, let us make it clear that it is not our primary interest to have a school shutdown but should they continue to shield perpetrators, instead of exposing them, we will take every step possible to ensure that Premiere Academy, Lugbe, Abuja is shutdown forever.
“We have incontrovertible documentary evidence; we have testimonies of previous students of that school. We have compelling and persuasive evidence and we are undaunted that we will go for it and we must seek justice for Keren.
“Keren has made a sacrifice so that no other child in Nigeria would be left in the custody of a school and be put through sexual abuse and all forms of criminal negligence by the school,” she stated.
Ughegbe said the Coalition would embark on a protest next week to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to seek the transfer of the case from the FCT Police Command for not being able to display professionalism in the matter.
He added that the police have acted like image maker of Premiere Academy by defending the action and role of the school and failed to release Keren’s medical report to the mother.
“The FCT Deputy Commissioner of Police, Fom Pam Joseph, has held on to the medical report of the deceased and refused to give it to the biological mother of the girl. The idea is if she gets it she would share with the press. Is the Police PRO of Premiere Academy? What is the business of the police with what the mother does with the information on the medical report?
“Of course, as an investigative journalists working with a Coalition, we have gotten the medical report that corroborates the fact that this girl was raped with condom left inside of her. That condom eventually caused sepsis which led to her untimely death.”
He said the preliminary report of autopsy conducted on Keren by the official doctor appointed by the police, Dr. Desmond Ike Okonkwo of Maitama General Hospital, revealed that she was raped.
Ughegbe challenged the school management to a media dialogue to discuss the rape and death of Keren-Happuch and other cases of sexual molestation, which it has the record of covering instead of handing paedophiles to the police.
“The board and management of Premiere Academy, Lugbe, told us they have never had any case of sexual abuse in the school, but that was a big fat lie. We have intelligence that a teacher of Physical and Health Education and a cook were suspended indefinitely for sexual molestation of students. We have the letter of indefinite suspension on account of this sexual crime. So, the school rather than handover such a paedophile to the police prefers to cover it in order to protect its name and business interest,” he stated.
“We are determined to put an end to all the evil happening in Premier Academy, Lugbe, and indeed in our boarding schools in Abuja especially. And no matter what it takes, we must get justice for Keren-Happuch, her grieving mother and the entire family,” he vowed.