posted February 13, 2023
Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked the Lagos State Governor Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to take immediate and comprehensive measures to prevent Lagos State private schools from becoming killing fields of students and places of sexual molestation of children.
The Lagos State Governor is thereby urged to investigate the allegations of negligence leading to the death of a 12-year-old female student of Chrisland International School Lagos, which will, no doubt, send a strong message that his administration will not condone such acts, going forward said the Rights group.
HURIWA stated that it is unfortunate that secondary schools in Lagos have been allowed to be infiltrated by rapists, cultists, and murderers just as the well-being of school children is being undermined in those schools with constructive interventions of Lagos State Government to stamp out these menaces.
HURIWA expressed consternation that cases of mysterious deaths of students in the private schools of Lagos and cases of sexual scandals including massive allegations of sexual molestation of school pupils, wanton raping of children by the staff of these schools in both primary and secondary schools in the private and public schools of Lagos have become both a worrisome development as well as a historic burdensome phenomenon that ought to be confronted using a variety of law based actions by the Lagos State Government to confront the crimes viciously and vehemently.
The Rights group condemned the lackluster and politically tainted approaches used so far by the current Lagos State administration to handle such cases including that of the 12-year-old male student of Dowen college Lagos Silvester Junior tortured to death in December 2021 by his colleagues for refusing to join a student cult. HURIWA accuses the Lagos State Governor of pandering to the whims and caprices of the rich elites who own these Private schools in Lagos who are believed to be using their connection to the seat of power in Lagos to perpetually delay and deny social justice to the victims of these crimes of rape and torture in the schools.
HURIWA in a statement to the media by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko recalled that Mr. Michael Adeniran, the father of a 12-year-old Chrisland International School student, Opebi branch, had taken to social media to cry out over the death of his daughter, Whitney Adeniran, who allegedly died during the school’s inter-house sports activities. According to posts making the rounds on social media on Saturday night, Adeniran said his daughter died on Thursday at the Agege Stadium, which the school used for its sporting activities.
HURIWA recalled that the father of the deceased Student has subsequently called on the Lagos State Government and the police to look into the matter and get justice for his slain child.
HURIWA quoted Adeniran as stating thus: “To the biggest shock of my life by 1 pm in the afternoon, I got a call from my wife that she was informed that our daughter slumped at the inter-house sport and she was rushed to the clinic. My wife was at the venue even before the event started. She was never informed or called until they have conveyed our child out of the venue before they informed her. On arrival of my wife at the health center where they took my daughter. my daughter was lying dead with her lips black and her tongue black.
HURIWA quoted the father of the deceased student as stating that: “I gave Chrisland school a healthy vibrant young girl what Chrisland returned to me is a dead child. My entire family is in deep sorrow but the school Authority claimed they know nothing about my daughter’s death and all they know is that my daughter slumped and died. “My question is what happened to my daughter at Agege stadium? As a father, I demand answers from Chrisland International High School. I am in deep pain and sorrow right now. If you are a father you will understand my pain. My daughter is highly loved by us. We cherished her existence and we can never allow an institution to gloss over the death of our daughter.”
HURIWA lamented also that Mr. Fredrick Olurunfemi, father of a 7-year-old pupil of Luyol Schools, who pointed an accusing finger at her school bus driver for molestation has been confirmed dead.
The pupil who will turn eight in May had told her mother that the driver, having conveyed other students to their destinations on the 1st of February, 2023, drove her to his house to have canal knowledge of her. Hearing this, Olurunfemi proceeded to the school with his daughter to speak to the driver, leading to an altercation between them. Consequently, the school bus driver pushed Mr. Femi, who fell down and was rushed to a nearby hospital, Osuntuyi Medical Centre where he was confirmed dead.
The Rights group said the wife to the deceased Mrs. Mabel Olurunfemi, said: “Last Wednesday, my daughter came back from school and told me that after her school bus driver had dropped everyone at their houses, he took her to his house, told her to lift her school uniform and sit on his lap to kiss him, and was calling her his wife.”
HURIWA is therefore asking the Lagos State Government and the State House of Assembly to pass legislative frameworks to protect school kids from rapists and cultists that have infiltrated these institutions so the Lagos State Private Schools do not degenerate into a killing field of students and places of raping of young children who are enrolled by their parents for education but who are now endangered species in the hands of rapists hibernating in those institutions. HURIWA is calling for the prosecution of the driver and alleged rapist for murder and rape so he faces a possible death sentence for his heinous crimes against the innocent girl and the deprivation of the life of her Father. Besides, HURIWA is calling for protests by members of the organized civil rights bodies in Lagos.