Two children on Friday died in their school bus in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos.
Benjamin Hundeyin, the command’s spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES via telephone on Saturday that “one of the victims is an eight-year-old male. We are yet to get the details of the other one.”
Explaining how it happened, Mr Hundeyin on Twitter said that “a school bus driver ignored repeated complaints from the kids he was taking home that they were not feeling well.”
He added that some of the children were unconscious, while two eventually died.
He also said that the yet-to-be-identified driver has been arrested by the police while the “relevant regulatory agency has been notified of this act of gross negligence.”
Mr Hundeyin urged private school owners to pay attention, particularly to their recruitment process.
“Parents too need to do thorough background checks of schools and crèches before entrusting their kids into their care,” he added.
Mr Hundeyin told this newspaper that while an autopsy hasn’t been done, “everything so far is pointing in the direction of suffocation.”
He said that school buses ought to have a First Aid box in case of an emergency and a Health Safety and Environment officer.
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“The duty of that officer is to lecture the staff of that organisation on what to do in case of an emergency. What to do in case of maybe fire, building collapse, flood, invasion,” he said.
“They are also responsible for mapping out muster points. If they had an HSE officer, he would have taught the driver the number to call and measures to take in case of an emergency.”
Contacted, assistant director of press at the ministry of education, Ganiu Lawal did not respond to calls and a text message at the time of publication.
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