The proprietor of Calvary Crown Academy, Paul Okugbowa, and three teachers have been sentenced to prison by an Oredo Chief Magistrate Court in Benin, Edo State, 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.”
Okugbowa was the candidate of the Young Progressive Party in the 2024 Edo governorship election on September 21.
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 or an option of N100,000 fine on each of the two counts bordering on negligence, leading to the injury of a six-year-old pupil, Salma Aigbudu.
Nimen was convicted for unlawfully abandoning another pupil, Zuri Aigbudu, two, 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 September 8, 2023, at the AIG Zone 5 headquarters in Benin, where he conducted himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace.
He was said to have publicly called 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 to the six-year-old daughter, which led to an injury on her face on September 29, 2021, and caused her serious harm.
Aigbudu was said to have been wounded in the waiting room of the school during the closing hour without any first aid administered to her by the teachers on duty.
The trio was also charged with abandoning another pupil, Zuri Aigbudu, two, in January 2022, thereby exposing the pupil to unnecessary danger.
The presiding Magistrate said, “Paul Okugbowa is sentenced to six months imprisonment with an option of N100,000 fine for calling the mother of a pupil a prostitute.
“Blessing Osarodion and Egharevba Esosa are hereby sentenced to one-year imprisonment or an option of N100,000 fine on each of the two counts bordering on negligence, leading to the injury of a six-year-old pupil, Salma Aigbudu.
“Isioma Nimen is convicted for unlawfully abandoning another pupil, Zuri Aigbudu, two, and sentenced to three months imprisonment or an option of N50,000.”
