The founder, Dr Olumide Phillip’s, and the entire board of governors of Lagos-based school, Dowen College, have quit their positions, weeks after one of their students Sylvester Oromoni passed on.
This was revealed in a statement by Tomi Borisade on behalf of the Board.
The statement said their decision to “retire” was aimed at reassuring the public of the school’s best intentions towards all parties as well as to sustain and grow its 24-year legacy.
Part of the statement said, “A few weeks ago, the school experienced the unfortunate loss of a promising young student Sylvester Oromoni. May his soul rest in perfect peace and may God grant the Oromoni family the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. We pray we will never experience such an unfortunate incident in our community again.
“We have worked on enhancing our safeguarding, monitoring processes and policies to ensure better oversight functions within the school. We are also reviewing our policies with our parents, staff and students to ensure strict compliance and best practices are adhered to going forward. As we review our processes, the school authority will not hesitate to relieve anyone responsible for administrative lapses in the duties of their positions.
“More significantly, the founding members of the Board of Governors, including the Founder and Chairman of the Board, Dr O. Olumide Phillips (PhD, FNSE, FNSChe, FAEng) who have worked tirelessly over the years to develop outstanding children in and out of the school, have chosen to retire and pass the baton of change to a new generation of seasoned professionals who will run with the vision, leadership passion, commitment and values they have worked rigorously to establish.”
