Deborah Okezie, the mother of the allegedly assaulted 11-year-old pupil of Deeper Life High School, Akwa Ibom, says she didn’t ask her lawyer to demand N100 million as compensation over the case.
She spoke to TheCable Lifestyle on Saturday, monitored by Freelanews in reaction to a document served to the institution by her solicitors.
“People said I should get a lawyer and I did. What I want is justice for Don Davis. Leave lawyer and that English he wrote. If the lawyer left that to look for N100 million, I didn’t open my mouth to ask for it,” Okezie explained.
“If I want damages, it’s not N100 million. What is N100 million when my child will be jumping out of bed (shocked) in the middle of the night? That’s what I’m saying. You (the lawyer) should have read it to my hearing.
“You don’t have the right to just write it. Even if I can’t read legal documents, there are those close to me who can. It’s not yet time to ask for money. I never told the lawyer with my own mouth to tell the school I needed N100m.
“I need justice first. I don’t know what he wrote. I haven’t read the court document. It came as a surprise to me.”
In the document to which Okezie reacted, she and Iniobong Archibong, the father of the alleged victim, were said to have demanded that the school makes the said payment within 21 days of receiving the letter dated December 22.
The couple were also said to have asked the school to publish an apology on two national and two local newspapers.
“We are solicitors to Mr. and Mrs, Iniobong Archibong, resident in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and hereinafter referred to as our client. We have the firm explicit and unequivocal instructions to write to you,” the letter reportedly read.
“It is indeed provocatively heartbreaking, morally suicidal, and religiously hypocritical that our client’s 11-year-old son was torrentially bombarded with physical and inhuman torture of debilitating dimension.
“We demand the payment of N100,000,000 within 21 days of the receipt of this letter as compensation to assuage the dehumanising, horrendous torture and indignity our client’s son was subjected to and for his medical checkup.
“We demand that Deeper Life High School, Idoro, Uyo, publish an unreserved apology to our clients in two national newspapers; PUNCH, THISDAY, and any two local newspapers circulated within Akwa Ibom and its environs.”
Freelanews had earlier reported how Okezie claimed her son was deprived of the food she had paid for and molested by the senior students after the principal moved him to their dormitory for urinating on his bed.
She had also claimed that her son told her the students used to push their hands and legs into his anus while also threatening to kill him if he reported to his parents or the principal, who was recently suspended over the case.
The mother had thereafter narrated how she was attacked at the office of Enobong Mbobo, the commissioner for education in the state, who had invited her and her son for questioning on the instruction of the state government.
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