AN Oredo Chief Magistrate’s Court in Benin has sentenced the proprietor of Calvary Crown Academy, Paul Okugbowa, and three teachers to prison for negligence and insulting a parent.
The presiding Magistrate, Caroline Oghuma, in the judgment delivered on Thursday sentenced Okugbowa to six months imprisonment with an option of N100, 000 fine for calling the mother of a pupil a prostitute.
The three teachers, Blessing Osarodion, Egharevba Esosa, and Isioma Nimen, were charged with negligence and abandonment of two pupils in their care.
Osarodion and Esosa were sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of N100,000 fine on each of the two counts of negligence, leading to the injury of a 6-year-old pupil.
Nimen was convicted for unlawfully abandoning another two years pupil and sentenced to three months imprisonment or an option of N50,000.
The offences for which they were arraigned contravened Sections 167(2), 412, 270, 412 and 267 of the Criminal Laws of Edo 2022.
According to the charge sheet, Okugbowa committed the offence on Sept. 8, 2023 at the AIG Zone 5 headquarters in Benin, where he conducted himself in a manner likely to cause breach of peace.
He was said to have publicly called Mrs Blessing Aigbudu, the mother of the two pupils, a prostitute in the presence of her husband and bystanders to the hearing of the public.
For the teachers, the trio worked with the Academy and were assigned as the caregivers for the children.
According to the sheet, the teachers failed to carry out their duty on the six year-old daughter, which led to an injury on her face on Sept. 29, 2021 and caused her serious harm.
Salma Aigbudu was said to have been wounded in the waiting room of the school during the closing hour without any first aid administered on her by the teachers on duty.
The trio was also charged for abandoning a pupil in January 2022, thereby exposing the pupil to unnecessary danger.