The Senate has directed the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to carry out a thorough investigation into circumstances surrounding the falling to death of Master David Udo in a creche, nursery school located in Aba, Abia state.
Udo reportedly fell off from the third floor of the three-storey building and crashed on the floor. He had suffered head and body injuries.
The Senate's request came after the adoption of a motion at plenary on Tuesday on “Urgent need to mandate schools to locate their creche and nursery classes to the ground floors of their high-rise buildings and implement safety protocols.”
The motion was sponsored by Senator Adebule Oluranti (APC-Lagos).
Oluranti in her presentation decried with grief, the death of the toddler on October 24, 2023, who fell from a school high rise building at Emerald International School, Aba, Abia state.
She said that the incident brought to the fore again the issue of safety in schools particularly for babies and toddlers in creche and nursery schools across Nigeria.
She said that accidents did occur, including falls from multi-floor buildings in schools, resulting in injuries, temporary or permanent disabilities and in some cases death.
She said many of the accidents might not have been reported appropriately to the supervisory state authorities to cause the activation of necessary investigation and possible sanctions.
“The ultimate is for investigations to cause state policy direction that will permanently prevent recurrence of these heinous accidents.”
She expressed concern that state policies or school operators and managers were expected to display duty of care and ensure that babies and toddlers under their care are properly monitored and prevented from falling off high-rise buildings in their premises.
She said that the case of Master David Udo was a pathetic and heart-breaking incident that required the Senate to critically look into the safety issues and protocols in schools across the country, including school building and facilities design and arrangement.
Sen.Victor Umeh (LP-Lagos) said the death of the toddler exposed negligence in the systems by relevant authorities.
"What we are suffering in this country is lack of control and design approval.
“We cannot build a house that will not pass building approval, building of schools must pass through the approval.”
Umeh commended the sponsor of the motion, describing her as a nationalist, though from Lagos but sponsored a motion of an human interest incident to that occurred in Abia State.
Other Senators who decried the incident and condoled the family of the deceased toddler included Sen.Abba Moro (PDP- Benue and Barau Jibril (APC-Kano).
Moro also called for proper design of school structures.
The Senate thereafter observed a minute silence in honour of the deceased toddler.
It also urged the Federal and States Ministries of Education to compel schools nationwide to locate their creche and nursery classes to the ground floor or bungalow within the school premises.
It further urge the federal and states ministries of Education to immediately conduct a risk assessment in all school Infrastructures in Nigeria to identify hazards and vulnerabilities and timeously Identify means to mitigate such hazards.
Senate also urged the Federal and State Ministries of Education to enforce safety protocols in schools as enshrined in the National Policy on Safety, Security and violence-free Schools and lasting its implementation guidelines.