There are speculations that some parents of the suspected students of Dowen College had flown their children out of Nigeria to evade arrest and possible prosecution.

Parents of fleeing students of Dowen College in Lagos as well as the school management could be held liable over the alleged assault and eventual demise of Sylvester Oromoni, the Vice-Chancellor of Kwara State University, KWASU, Muhammed Akanbi, has said.

Oromoni Junior was a 12-year-old Junior Secondary School 2 student of Dowen College at Lekki area of Lagos State.

Police in Lagos had on Tuesday, confirmed the arrest of three students of Dowen College, in connection with the controversial death of the 12-year-old student of the school.

The police spokesperson in the state, Adekunle Ajisebutu, who confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, however, did not disclose the identities of those students in custody.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that the bereaved family had insisted that the 12-year-old mentioned five senior students of the college in his last-minute narrative on how he was allegedly tortured over his refusal to join a secret cult.

The father, Sylvester Oromoni Snr, also said his son confided in him that he was handed a substance to drink.

There have been speculations that some parents of the suspected students had flown their children out of Nigeria to evade arrest and possible prosecution.

‘Why parents of fleeing students may be liable’

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Akanbi, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said it might be difficult to prosecute parents for the “sins” of the children. “But there is something called aiding and abetting.”

“That is, a person has committed an offence, and you helped that person to escape from justice, then our criminal books have something for such parents.

“Those these are juveniles, but we still have provisions of the law that will bring them to justice,” the Vice-Chancellor explained

“So, if a parent has deliberately moved his or her child from the country to escape justice, that parent should be liable for the particular offence of allowing an offender to escape justice,” he said.

Giving perspectives on the school’s alleged abdication of responsible, Mr Akanbi admitted that is a bit technical, “whether the school (Dowen College) is vicariously liable,” querying if, “The school put in place mechanisms that will checkmate bullying.”