Deeper Life High School, Dowen College, Four Elite Schools Involved in Scandals

A 10-year-old pupil of Chrisland School at VGC, Lagos State was said to have been gang-raped by her classmates during their trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The mother revealed this in a video which has gone viral on social media.

The state government shut down the school on Monday, saying the matter was being investigated by the Ministry of Education; Office of Education Quality Assurance; Ministry of Youth and Social Development; Ministry of Justice, and the Lagos State Domestic & Sexual Violence Agency.

The incident has rekindled controversies surrounding some elite private schools such as Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos, in recent times.

Dowen College had been in the news over the death of a Junior Secondary School 2 student, Sylvester Oromoni, who was allegedly bullied in the school by some students.

On 28 November 2021, 11-year-old Sylvester (Jr) succumbed to injuries sustained at the boarding school. There were various accounts on the cause of his death. He was said to have told his parents before he died that senior students bullied him in an attempt to initiate him into cultism, the school claimed he sustained injuries while playing football.

Deeper Life Secondary School located in Oyu, Akwa Ibom State was also enmeshed in a controversy when a parent, Identified as Mrs Deborah Okezie alleged that some senior students sexually abused her son when the school authorities relocated him from his dormitory to another dormitory filled with senior students.

According to a viral video in December 2020, the parent alleged that the students removed her son’s boxers and forced hands into his anus.

The matter attracted several reactions on social media, with some Nigerians calling on the General Superintendent of the church, Pastor William Kumuyi, to ensure that the victim gets justice. The principal of Oyo campus of the school was later suspended.

Also, 14-year-old Karen-Happuch Akpagher, a student at Premiere Academy, Lugbe in Abuja was said to have died of trauma from sexual molestation on June 22, 2021.

Reports said Akpagher died from hyperglycemia triggered by sepsis resulting from infection caused by a condom found in her private parts. It was alleged that she was defiled in school and the incident concealed from her parents.

But in a statement by the acting principal of the school who expressed grief over the death of the child, the school said the student was released to her mother in a stable condition on May 19 2021, only to be told days after that her condition had deteriorated.