Mrs. Chika Omesi, a mother from Onitsha, Anambra State, is protesting against the suspension and subsequent expulsion of her daughter, Chidi Chiamaka Omesi, from Mater Amabilis Secondary School in Umuoji, Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State. Her daughter was punished for a post made by Mrs. Omesi on the school’s Facebook wall.
Mrs. Omesi has also served a notice of intention to sue the Anambra government and the authorities of Mater Amabilis Secondary School for alleged child labor and inhumane treatment. She has accused the Manager of the school, Rev. Father Chikwado Onwuchulum, of exhibiting irrational behavior, high-handedness, and child abuse. She also lamented that her 15-year-old daughter has been suffering emotional trauma since her suspension on March 8, 2023.
According to reports, trouble started when Mrs. Omesi reacted angrily against the action of a Seminarian in the school who ordered Chidi and some of her female colleagues in the school to pack blocks meant for building construction in the school as punishment for sending birthday wishes with their mothers’ phones during the Presidential election break. The Manager of the school intercepted the birthday wishes sent by the students through the Seminarian and decided to punish them when they returned to the school after the election break. Parents of the girls were not happy with the punishment meted out to their children.
Apart from packing thousands of blocks for the building construction, the school girls were allegedly made to kneel down under the sun throughout the day as part of other punishment they received for sending birthday wishes to the school’s Facebook wall. This resulted in Mrs. Omesi reacting angrily on the school’s Facebook wall, which commended the newly elected prefects, an action that got the Rev. Fr. offended. He invited her to the school where he handed her a letter expelling her daughter from the school.
In a letter addressed to Mrs. Omesi, dated March 8, 2023, Rev. Fr. Onwuchulum cited verbal abuse and character assassination Mrs. Omesi posted on the school’s Facebook wall as injurious to the image of the school and staff. The letter read, “Without any provocation on our part, you went to the Facebook timeline of the teacher in question and called him a thief, hauling all kinds of verbal abuse against him. You came to our school’s official Facebook page with over 20,000 followers and leveled me wicked. We feel disappointed by your malicious ungrateful comportment.
“We are suspending your daughter from our school from now till 22nd March when she will come back to take her second term examination, other things will be decided afterward” the letter noted. Rev. Fr. Onwuchulum also issued a Zenith bank Plc Cheque of N30,000, dated 08-03-2023, No. 0100729845, signed but without the receiver’s name, which he allegedly handed over to Mrs. Omesi as a refund of N75,000 School Fees paid for her daughter.
In a letter addressed to the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke, dated March 12, 2023, Mrs. Omesi said her daughter in SS2 alongside 11 other students, all of Mater Amabilis Secondary School, Umoji, participated in a Students for Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship, SAGE, Competition held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Ogun state, after some of the students returned from an overseas similar competition sponsored by the birthday celebrant.
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