He said Whitney did not die as a result of electrocution as stated in the autopsy report.

Adewale, who said he makes Shawarma, Candy Floss, Popcorn, and Barbecue on request, stated this before Magistrate Olanike Fajana, at the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court sitting in Ogba.

The state government had stated that the post-mortem report revealed that Whitney died of Asphyxia and electrocution.

The report dated March 1, 2023, was issued by the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

The 12-year-old pupil reportedly slumped and died during the school’s inter-house sports at the Agege Stadium, on February 9.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Monday, Adewale told the coroner that on the day of the incident, the school management had stopped him from producing Shawarma and Candy Floss under the pool.

The witness, who was cross-examined by the deceased’s family lawyer, Mr Femi Falana SAN, said he was an independent vendor of the Agege Stadium where he registered to be able to conduct his business.

Adewale told Magistrate Fajana that he registered his business in February 2013 and that he was always at the Stadium and when Chrisland School came to inspect the stadium they saw him and liked him.

Adewale explained that in all the events he had sold snacks, he had never experienced electrocution with his machine.

He said he did not see the deceased when she slumped but he saw pupils and teachers surrounding the pupil on the ground.

“When I went to check what was happening, I saw teachers and pupils surrounding her and I asked what happened, they said she slumped,” he explained.

He added, “To the best of my observation, the deceased did not die of electrocution. There was no naked wire, the autopsy was erroneous and from where the deceased was, it was 5cm from where my machine was and it was unplugged.

“I don’t know if the deceased died of electrocution. Other organisations have conducted tests and there was nothing like electrocution”.

The case was further adjourned till May 22, for continuation of hearing.

He noted that after the incident, the family withdrew her access to all her accounts.

It was reported that the pupil deleted her videos on her known Likee page where she had over 12400 fans.

She was also said to have apologised for her role in the incident on her Tiktok account.

However, her father said it’s been two weeks since she touched a phone or used the Internet.

He said since the controversial issue started, the family had deleted no fewer than 87 accounts created by impostors.

The father said, “My daughter has never touched the phone for the past two weeks. She has never touched anything Internet; those accounts are fake and we have deleted them as of Friday, 87 fake accounts. All of them are fake and they are imposters.

“Can a 10-year-old girl delete social media? This child has never touched anything Internet or phone. She doesn’t have an account on (Likee). The account was closed as soon as we found out. These people (school) hid this thing for the past one month, we found out and raise the alarm. We are surprised that they started going to pick a child’s picture; like a child will stay in the house and snap a picture and start posting it, so we closed the account.On Friday, I was coming from Panti (SCID), I was with my daughter in the car; my wife and lawyer were in the car and we were driving home when a friend called me that my daughter was chatting now. I said which chatting, my daughter is with me now and doesn’t have any phone with her. I said we are together and somebody is chatting and it is not my daughter.”

This followed a controversy generated over an “immoral act” engaged in by students of the school during a trip to Dubai.

The shutdown notice was contained in a press statement on Monday.

Pupils from the elite private school located in Victoria Garden City had embarked on a trip to Dubai to participate in the World School Games between March 10 and 13, 2022 when the incident happened.

Following the incident, the school authorities suspended the student indefinitely, stating that she was “a major actor” in an “immoral act”.

But the mother of the student claimed that her daughter was drugged and raped by some male students of the school.

Efforts to reach the school for clarification proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.

The government, in the statement, noted that an investigation into the matter had begun.

The statement read, “The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to the alleged sexual violence case involving students of Chrisland Schools which occurred in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

It is pertinent to note that all allegations are being investigated by the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including the Ministry of Education, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Ministry of Justice and the Lagos State
Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, whilst the criminal allegations have been escalated to the Commissioner of Police.

“In view of the allegations, we are committed to ensuring that adequate medical and pscyho-social support is provided.

“This is to reassure members of the public of the State Government’s commitment to safety and child protection, especially in ensuring that all child-centred institutions within the state, formulate and implement policies and systems that are compliant with the Executive Order (NO.EO/AA08 of 2016), Lagos State Safeguarding and Child Protection Program.

“We also use this medium to remind the general public that any person who engages in any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child, commits an offence and is liable to a custodial sentence of 14 years. This includes “producing, distributing, receiving, or possessing an image of child pornography”.

“In the meantime, all Chrisland Schools within Lagos State are hereby closed, pending further investigations.”