By Adewale Adetoyese
It was a black Saturday afternoon at the Ijo Mimo High School, Akure, Ondo State capital, when the school’s Senior Prefect who was a Senior Secondary School 3 student, Temitayo Oluwole, fell from a mango tree on the premises of the school and died.
It was gathered that the late Temitayo had gone to school for tutorial in preparation for the Senior Secondary School Certificate and the National Examinations Council examinations coming up in June and July, before being sent by a teacher to pluck some mangoes from the tree before hitting his head on the ground in the process.
A colleague of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that, “We all came for tutorial on Saturday and after the tutorial, one of our teachers asked him to go and pluck some mangoes for him; it was while he was on the tree to pluck the mangoes that he fell down and later died.
“This was the fourth time a student had died after falling from that particular mango tree in this school; in spite of that, our teachers still send us to pluck mangoes for them from that tree. Despite our cries that the tree is evil, we can’t disobey them whenever they send us to climb the tree to pluck mangoes.”
The father of the deceased, Pastor Bode Adegoke, expressed sadness over the incident, adding that the deceased passed away at the Trauma Centre, Ondo, where we was referred to.
He said, “When the incident happened, we rushed him to a private hospital, where we were referred to the state hospital and from the state hospital, we were again referred to the Trauma Centre, Ondo, where he gave up the ghost around 6.52pm.”
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Femi Joseph, said the command had commenced investigation into the case.
