The family of two-year-old Winnie Akakue is demanding answers after she died at Wisdom Gate International School, Campus 1, Eligbolo, on March 17, 2026. Her father says the police investigation into the child’s death has been biased and that justice must be served.
Dr Iasuaka Akakue said a verbal briefing from the pathologist who conducted the autopsy indicated that his daughter suffered a fractured skull. He said the school told the family Winnie had been asleep in her classroom when a bookshelf allegedly collapsed on her, but the family believes the response after the incident raises as many questions as the death itself.
Akakue said the school took the child to two separate medical facilities before notifying the family. Doctors at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital reportedly later confirmed that Winnie was brought in dead. He also alleged that the scene had been altered before an independent assessment could be made, saying the bookshelf was moved and the area cleaned before any outside review took place.
The father said the family is still waiting for a transparent account of what happened and rejected any suggestion that the matter was too straightforward to investigate fully. He challenged the police claim that his family failed to request the autopsy report, saying authorities had earlier assured them they would be contacted when it was ready and that police later confirmed receipt of the report during a follow-up inquiry.
Akakue said he was told on Thursday that the detained person had been released, and accused unnamed people of trying to push the family toward a quick burial and an out-of-court settlement. “While we grieve and in our pain, we found the attitude of the school very disturbing, because they’ve been using proxies, highly placed persons to try to pressure me,” he said.
He added that he no longer knew how safe he was and repeated that all he wanted was justice for his daughter so she could be laid to rest with the truth about what killed her. “No thorough investigation has been made on the matter, everything has been about suppressing the matter, hoping that we would be able to reach a resolution,” he said.
The case now turns on whether the police can answer the family’s central charge: that the search for closure has moved faster than the search for the facts. For Winnie’s parents, the issue is not only how she died, but whether anyone will still be willing to find out.
