Ogun schools on edge as students batter teachers

In recent times, some students of secondary schools in Ogun State have launched serial assaults on their teachers. The development, which some educationists consider alien, has put teachers on edge.

“If the students we teach now turn back to attack us, it is greatly alarming,” the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Ogun State, Abiodun Akinola, noted while responding to questions on the serial attacks on his members.

Akinola’s frustration is a pointer to the mood among teachers in the state, who now live under fear of possible attacks by their students and parents. The strange habit is fast becoming a ‘new normal’ in the ‘Gateway State.’

Last week, about three cases were recorded, where students hired hoodlums to invade some secondary schools’ premises and beat up their teachers. The students, in some cases, reportedly assaulted the teachers in company of their parents.

The ugly trend was preceded by incidents of clashes among students of various secondary schools.

In June, students from two public schools clashed after two of their colleagues reportedly died during a gambling competition.

Students from Baptist Boys’ High School, Saje and Ilugun High School in Elega engaged one another in a violent clash, which lasted for several hours.

Findings across various secondary schools revealed that cultism, truancy, disobedience to school authorities and other acts of indiscipline have become the order of the day.

The teachers, in the course of instilling discipline, have caught the wrath of the unruly students, and in some cases, their parents.

On October 12, police operatives from the Ogun command arrested a 35-year-old Abidemi Oluwaseun for allegedly invading a public school with thugs to attack a teacher, who he accused of beating his 15-year-old daughter.

Also arrested were Fayesele Olabanji and Alebiosu Quawiyu, the alleged thugs.  They were arrested following a distress call received from the principal of Baptist Girls’ College, Idiaba, Abeokuta, that three men invaded the school with an unregistered vehicle, armed with brand new cutlass and threatening to hack down a teacher of the school.

The spokesman of the police, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told newsmen in Abeokuta that following the distress call, the divisional police officer, Kemta division, CSP Opebiyi Sunday, mobilised his men and moved to the scene.

Oyeyemi said the three men were apprehended right inside the school premises.

“On interrogation, Abidemi Oluwaseun confirmed hiring the other two men to the school to teach the teacher who beat his daughter a lesson of his life,” Oyeyemi said.

In other cases, the students hired thugs to assault their teachers for punishing them for acts of indiscipline. Many teachers have sustained injuries in the process.

In October alone, no fewer than four cases of attack took place in different public schools in the state.

At Unity High School, Kajola Ibooro, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, three teachers, including a nursing mother, were attacked by miscreants, who were reportedly hired by some students.

The nursing mother, Mrs Oyadoke, who reportedly went through a caesarean session 10 months ago, was attacked when she tried to caution an aunt of a student, who was having an altercation with the principal of the school.

Last week Monday, students of Community High School, Ijoun in Yewa North Local Government, were said to have hired hoodlums to attack and send their teachers away from the school.

It was gathered that the hoodlums stormed the school premises about 10.45am and freely used weapons, such as machetes and axes on Messrs Stephen Oyelekan and Kayode Olatunji.

Barely 24 hours after, an elderly Mathematics teacher, identified as Mr Owolabi at Comprehensive High School, Itori, was beaten up by an SSS 3 student.

It was reported that Owolabi was teaching SSS1 students when the ‘attacker’ rudely burst into his class and started beating a girl.

As Owolabi attempted to stop the boy from maltreating the girl, the SSS3 student “descended heavily on the teacher and beat him mercilessly,” a source disclosed.

The unruly student was reportedly apprehended by the police while operatives of Amotekun were deployed to the school as teachers panicked that his gang members in the school may attack them.

Police blame parents, threaten to go after unruly students

The spokesman of the state police command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, hinted that some of those arrested had been arraigned in court, vowing that the command would not relent in curtailing the menace.

Oyeyemi blamed the ugly trend on indiscipline being promoted by parents.

He said, “Lack of discipline among parents is the cause of this ugly trend in Ogun State. If a parent is disciplined he won’t follow his son or daughter to school to beat a teacher. It is because the parents are not disciplined. Most of the parents that are disciplined won’t do that. That’s just the simple thing about it.

“I made an example some time ago when a father celebrated that his son was the number one of Aiye cult in Itori. He threw a party for that. Parents are making their children believe that cultism is a good thing.”

We’ll expel, prosecute unruly students – Ogun government

The Ogun State Government has threatened to expel unruly students following serial attacks on secondary school teachers by their students in some parts of the state.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Abayomi Arigbabu, declared that erring students would be expelled and prosecuted along with their accomplices.

Arigbabu gave this warning in Abeokuta while addressing management and zonal education officers across the state.

The commissioner, who said the government would continue to frown at such acts of indiscipline, revealed that those that were caught previously had been charged to court.

He said his ministry would collaborate with law enforcement agencies to ensure that normalcy is restored in schools.

“The governor is really worried about the unruly trend of hoodlums coming into our schools to beat up our teachers. Therefore, any student caught in this act would be made to face the full wrath of the law, alongside their accomplices.

“Ogun State is known as a home of respectable and responsible citizens and we will not allow any act that would tarnish our image,” the commissioner warned.

Officials of the Ogun State Government, led by Arigbabu, also held a meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), assuring them of their safety in schools.

They are products of hunger, broken homes – NUT chairman

Speaking on the development, the NUT chairman, Abiodun Akinola, said the students involved in such acts were products of broken homes and victims of the failure of government.

“It is not their fault. The problem is the government; the reason being that a hungry man is an angry man. There are so many broken homes these days due to the fact that what belongs to the society is not adequately given to the society, so the children, who are already hungry from their homes, easily get angry,” he said, adding, “All those involved are presently in police custody.”