Ademola Adeleke Governor Ademola Adeleke has confirmed that some students of St James Primary School. Owo-Ope Area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital suffered “food poisoning” after they were fed with allegedly “contaminated food” by the government-recruited vendor who served the school.
Confirming the incident, Governor Adeleke in a Press Statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, called for the immediate suspension of the “free school meal” at the affected school and ordered auditing of the O’meal to prevent a reoccurrence of the incident.
The reports about the alleged food poisoning in the Osun State Public School were skeptical as some people who seemed to be in defense of the government attempted to water the report before the Governor came out to unveil the truth surrounding the incident.
The parents of the affected students claimed that they quickly rushed their kids to the nearby medical facilities when they discovered that the students were persistently experiencing “stomach upset” and “vomiting” soon after they returned home from school. On interrogation, the students revealed they ate “Rice and egg” which is suspicious to have been contaminated before it was served by the vendor of the government’s free food in the school.
Some of the mothers of the victim students claimed that perceived “rotten eggs” from the mouths of their kids.
The students were admitted to various hospitals where they received various degrees of medical attention as the situation of some students has worsened to the level of vomiting blood when they return home.
Free School Feeding was introduced to Osun State to boost the number of students attending schools at the basic ages, and bring drastic reduction to the “out of school students”. The program which was nicknamed O’meal has been in existence for decades but was immediately suspended by Governor Ademola Adeleke when he was inaugurated as the Governor of the state in November 2022. He sacked all the vendors recruited by the previous administration who had been trained by the previous administration and recruited his loyalists as the new vendors in the state.
However, a monitored conversation between a local radio in the state capital, Osogbo, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on O’Meal, Mrs. Grace Ayodele, who was eventually in the school at the time of the Radio-calling, denounced the allegation of “food poisoning” and described it as a “political statement”.
Mrs. Ayodele insisted that nothing of such happened at the school as all the pupils were present in the school taking their terminal examinations.
Speaking to the Head Mistress of the School, Mrs. Adegbite, informed the local radio station that the school is only responsible for whatever happens to the pupils between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM when the students are in their custody. She stated that they are not responsible for whatever happens to the pupils outside of “school hours”.
Mrs. Adegbite stated that she received a distress call from one of the parents of the affected students who she said live in the same area around 6:00 PM, and she passed the information to the government authority at the Olorunda Local Government Area where the school falls.
Mrs. Ayodele and Mrs. Adegbite stated that all the “affected pupils” are back in the school and there is no cause for an alarm.
The Chairman of the Olorunda Local Government Education Authority, Hon. Nathaniel Ojetola, however, confirmed that 18 pupils were treated and discharged for the alleged “food poisoning”. He stated that out of the two hundred (200) pupils who were registered in the school, one hundred thirteen (113) of them were present on the faithful Monday. Hon. Ojetola said a government delegation has been put up, to visit families of the affected students.
Category: World-News
Tag: Osun food poisoning news Ademola Adeleke news
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Published 12/12/2023 3:13:24 PM