The Principal, Mrs. Tofunmi Akamo, of the Federal Government College,
Ijaniki, Lagos State, has denied allegations of covering up some students
caught absconding from school to lodge female classmates in a hotel for sex
romps saying the students, numbering six, were picked up from the hotel by the
school, adding that the incident happened once.
It was also reported that for more than three sessions, including the
just-concluded first term, some of the students left the school unnoticed but Mrs.
Tofunmi Akamo, claimed that the school management noticed the absence of the
students during an urgent roll call at the hostel.
On Monday morning, they called their parents to confirm if they were at
home and the parents said they were not at home. The parents came to the
school; we were all searching and investigating what could have happened.
“One of the parents of those girls told us that the girls went to the
hotel, jumping the fence on Sunday. We went to the hotel to evacuate them. They
were five that were evacuated; two boys and three girls.
“When they came to the school, we asked them to write reports; it was
through the report that we even discovered that there was another girl who left
on Monday to come back to school, while others still remained in the hotel.
“When they came to the school, we asked them to write reports; it was
through the report that we even discovered that there was another girl who left
on Monday to come back to school, while others still remained in the hotel.
Akamo described allegations that the students used drugs as unfounded.
“Late last session when they were writing an external examination, we
discovered that some boys were not in the hostel during roll check and we
learnt that they normally went to a nightclub around our school.
“My chief security officer went there around 9pm and at that time they
had not arrived at the club. So, the owner of the club collected the number of
my CSO so that he would inform him.
“By 11pm, they called my CSO and by 1am we brought about 10 of them back
to school. One of them was my assistant head boy and immediately, we had an
assembly; I brought all of them out and de-badged the prefects among them.
“I also asked them to leave the dormitories; but they could be coming to
sit their external examinations, which they were writing at that time. I told
them they could no longer stay in the hostel.
“There is no history of anybody getting pregnant as a student. We knew
one of the girls had one million naira in her account. I am sure this child has
been showing all of these things at home. It cannot be that it was inside the
school that she learnt how to go and make money from sex.
“The only time we had an issue of a pregnancy in the school was a blind
girl. The lady got pregnant during COVID-19 at a place she used to go to play
with people. After we did a test and we discovered she was pregnant, we invited
the father and she left the school. I told her that she could not stay in the
school because we are training young girls and not mothers-to-be.
“The claim by the PTA chairman that one of the students impregnated
another student is not true. There is nothing like that; I am not aware and if
that happens I will know.”
The Global President of the Old Students Association of the school, Toun
Aderele, said the school management committee, which comprised all stakeholders
of the school was saddled with the responsibility of making decisions on such
issues.
Aderele added that the recommendation of the committee was always sent
to the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja for conclusion.
She also lamented that some parents had been frustrating the efforts of
the school authority in instilling discipline.
She said, “There is a lot of resistance from parents. In fact, there are
times parents challenge the authorities on why they should bring their children
out and why they should take a certain decision.
“The old students association is always on the heels of the management
to ensure that they live up to expectation. The principal has absolutely no
wrong in this matter; she has stood as a principal, mother and taken all the
necessary decisions.”
The Executive Director, Special Duties, National Association of Nigerian
Students, Oladimeji Uthman, said the student body would constitute a committee
to look into the matter.
Uthman described the act allegedly committed by the students as barbaric
and disheartening.
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