Tear Gas Fired at Children During Children’s Day Event in Edo State

Tear Gas Fired at Children During Children’s Day Event in Edo State.

What was supposed to be a day of fun and laughter for school children in Edo State took a different turn over the weekend. Reports reaching Toktok9ja Media indicate that young students were allegedly tear-gassed during a Children’s Day celebration.

Pictures making the rounds on social media show a troubling scene. In the images, secondary school children are seen lying unconscious on hospital floors. Others appear visibly distressed. Some of the children were left on bare floors, without beds or mattresses, according to the same pictures.

At first, many online viewers thought the children had simply collapsed from exhaustion. The weather was hot, and large gatherings can sometimes take a toll on young ones. But then a statement from the government changed the conversation.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Edo State Governor released an article addressing the event. Many people who read it, however, felt the piece was an attempt at damage control rather than a straightforward explanation.

According to the government’s version of events, the children were having a great time. They were, in the words of the press secretary, “very excited” about the activities arranged for them. But when it was time to leave, things got messy. Some of the children, the government said, became “unruly” at the gate.

Bouncers were then brought in to control the situation. When that did not work, tear gas was used. The result was the images now circulating online.

The government’s explanation has not gone down well with many social media users. One commenter summed up the feelings of several others by calling the statement “depressing to read.” Another person said any reasonable person would see the government’s words as a failed attempt to spin a bad situation.

A social media user who commented on the issue wrote:

“This is further shameful considering the mood of the country in this year’s Children’s Day because of the failure of the APC government to secure the lives of our children who are in captivity. The APC government in Edo State is putting our children at risk by gathering them in a location without adequate planning and then using tear gas on them. Children who were supposed to celebrate ended up in hospitals. The State leadership should hide their head in shame.”

The incident did not happen in a vacuum. This year’s Children’s Day came at a time when many Nigerian families are already worried about the safety of young ones across the country. For a state government to then add to that worry by using tear gas on children during a celebration meant for them—many see that as a heavy failure.

One mother who spoke with Toktok9ja Media on the condition of anonymity said: “My own child was not there, but when I saw those pictures, I cried. Those children could have been mine. Who uses tear gas on kids?”

The one piece of good news in this whole story is that no death has been reported. Hospital sources confirmed that the children brought in were treated and later discharged or kept for observation depending on how badly they were affected. Still, that small mercy has done little to calm the anger online.

As of the time of this report, the Edo State Government has not issued any further statement beyond the press secretary’s article. Calls to the governor’s office for additional comments went unanswered.

But for many Nigerians, the silence is not the issue. The issue is that a Children’s Day event—meant to celebrate young people and make them feel loved—ended with children lying on hospital floors, struggling to breathe.

Whether the government meant well or not, the images are now out there. And for a lot of people, those images speak louder than any press release ever could.

Toktok9ja Media will continue to follow this story as more details come in.

Tear Gas Fired at Children During Children’s Day Event in Edo State.