Female Student Goes Blind After Principal’s Secretary Slapped Her [See Photos]

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
CollegeHospital, 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.
Iyanu's mother, Mrs Damilola Dahunsi,
corroborated her daughter's narration, saying that
she didn't take the incident serious initially.
"To my surprise, the eye started swelling up. I
followed my daughter to school on Monday,
February 9 and the principal was shocked to see
the eye.
"We went to Mrs Fashina and I begged her to give
us an antidote if she used a charm on my daughter
but she denied using charm to slap my daughter.
My daughter never had any eye problem since she
was born.
"We took Iyanuoluwa to UCH and we were told that
she would go through surgery. We did CT scan at
UCH but the result was cornered and we never saw
it. We were told to go home when we could not pay
the N300,000 we were asked to deposit.
"Unfortunately, the woman who slapped my
daughter refused to do anything financially and my
brother who went to the Commissioner for
Education was told that efforts were on to go round
schools for students to contribute money towards
my daughter's treatment."
Sunkanmi Ojewumi, Iyanu's uncle, decried the
attitude of a staff of UCH (names withheld), whom
he said tried to frustrate all their efforts because
she is Mrs Fashina's in-law.
"We didn't get the result of the test carried out in
UCH and the police at Alakia-Adelubi did not get it
also. To our surprise, the result found its way to
TESCOM where the Permanent Secretary at the
Ministry of Education, Mr. Giwa, told me he had
seen the result and it indicated that the girl might
have had underlying problems that resulted in the
eye problem.
"He said the only way they could help was to go
round schools and seek donations from students,
which TESCOM would add to. It was claimed that
she had a tumor in the eye. But we will not accept
the result because the girl never had eye problem.
"We appeal to the government to come to the girl's
aid. We don't have any money and the father's shop
at Oki area of Ibadan was razed recently and he lost
goods worth millions of naira. The mother sells
provisions."
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.