Falana takes over Whitney Adeniran’s case as family pursues coroner’s inquest

Falana & Falana Chambers will be representing the family of Whitney Adeniran, the late student of Chrisland High School Ikeja, as efforts toward a coroner’s inquest into the case begins.

Whitney, a 12-year-old student died during a sports event in Lagos on February 9.

Blessing, the student’s mother, accused Chrisland of negligence as her family continued to question the school.

She claimed the school made no provision for emergency response at the event, hence didn’t administer first aid.

The mother said the girl had no pre-existing heart condition despite the doctor’s allusion to a cardiac arrest.

The Lagos education ministry ordered a temporary closure of the school, pending an investigation into the matter.

A source at Falana & Falana said the law firm was on Monday briefed to represent the family on the case.

The firm also wrote the chief coroner at the high court in Ikeja, filing for an inquest to determine the cause of death.

“We have been engaged by the family of the late Whitney Adeniran to facilitate the unraveling of the mystery behind her sudden death at Chrisland International High School, Opebi, Lagos on February 9,” the letter, seen by TheCable Lifestyle, reads.

“It was alleged that the young girl went to school on the day with no sign of any ailment only for the parents to get to know later that she had passed on without any justifiable explanation from the school management.”

Earlier ordering an inquest into Whitney’s death, the Lagos government cited the need for a “thorough” probe.

This is not the first time Chrisland School Lagos would be at the centre of a crisis involving one of its students.

In mid-2022, four teachers were arraigned after a sex tape by Chrisland pupils surfaced online during an outing.

In 2019, an ex-staffer of the Chrisland in VGC bagged a 60-year jail term for defiling a two-year-old girl in 2016.