Day secondary schoolchildren armed selves, killed

Taiwo Jimoh

 Residents of Abeokuta in Ogun State will never forget in a hurry the panic that rocked their communities on June 28.

That was the fateful day, secondary school children, believed to be still wet behind the ears, grabbed guns and started shooting sporadically like they were in a Wild West movie.

 

While some were armed with guns, others were armed with machetes, broken bottles and charms. The targets of their shooting were their fellow students.

 

The shooting erupted following the death of two students, who were alleged to have been stabbed during an inter-schools’ gambling competition. According to eyewitnesses, the fight lasted for several hours.

 

The incident involved Senior School Students of the Baptist Boys High School, Saje area, and students of Ilugun High School located within the Federal Housing Estate in Elega, Abeokuta.

 

An eyewitness said the students shot sporadically in different directions and chanted anti-management songs to warn the principal and teachers of the schools to stay off.

 

A woman trader explained that the students of the two schools were last week involved in a gambling competition and the BBHS students won massively at the expense of their Ilugun counterparts.

 

She said: “The gambling, however, degenerated into a conflict, wherein two BBHS students were stabbed with broken bottles. One of the stabbed BBHS students died last Friday, while the second one died on Sunday. But the students of BBHS were not happy about the incident; that was why they came out in violent protest against students of Ilugun High School on Monday.”

 

The Ogun State PPRO, s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that the armed students and those that stabbed two to death were too young to be arrested.

His words: “We cannot arrest them because they are underage. They are just between ages 12 and 14, and they cannot be arrested and detained. But we have involved the parents and the schools to make sure that such ugly occurrence does not repeat itself. The State government and the Police command are also on top of the situation. We are currently talking to the schools involved to put measures into place to ensure that such thing doesn't happen again.”

 

However, while the Nigerian Police and governments dilly dallied on how best to tackle this escalating issue of violence in schools, more students are likely go to be killed, maimed or hurt.

 

This kind of violence is becoming a recurring decimal among secondary schoolchildren. And the traumatic occurrences these days happened right in the schools, forcing even those unsuspecting innocent students to become part of the trauma.

 

On June 29, the Ogun State Assembly called on the State Commissioner for Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to urgently interface with other stakeholders, including security agencies and the Parents- Teachers Associations towards curbing the menace.

 

The Speaker, Hon. Olakunle Oluomo, made the call while responding to the submission of a member representing Abeokuta North State Constituency, Hon. Modupe Mujota and her Odeda counterpart, Hon. Oludaisi Elemide, under Personal Explanation at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

 

Oluomo challenged the Commissioner to brainstorm with leadership of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), security agencies and community leaders with a view to taking drastic steps to forestall the reoccurrence of such act; advising parents to improve on the monitoring of their wards to have first-hand information on their activities while outside the home.

 

These days, parents are swamped with worries and anxieties. They live in fear, not sure if their children will return home alive or in body bags.

 

Recently in April 2021, the Lagos State Police Command arrested four teenagers, including three secondary school students, for attempting to attack a rival group in a secondary school.

 

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Olumuyiwa Adejobi, while speaking on it, said that the suspected cultists came from Ogun for a reprisal on other rival cult members at the Junior Secondary School, Akinyele, Alakuko in Lagos. The students were between ages of 14 and 18.

Adejobi said: “Two of the suspects were from Odewale Community High School, Ijoko Ogun, one from Tunik International School, Dalemo Alakuko, Lagos and one tailoring apprentice at Dalemo Alakuko. The police operatives got winds of the planned reprisal on their rivals in the school and raced to the scene immediately the suspects arrived to cause pandemonium and attack their targets. Items like cutlasses, weeds suspected to be cannabis and assorted charms were recovered from them.”

However, security experts believed that something can be done about the situation, to curtail it from degenerating into everyday human carnages.

A former Assistant Director at the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, said: “The level we find ourselves today is what the children in secondary school seeing their elders doing and that’s what they are emulating.”

He further said: “Parents also contributed to what we are seeing today. Some parents do not care about their children. What such parents are after is just money. But a child who doesn't have moral will definitely go into cultism or robbery. Again, movies which some of these children are watching also contributed to what we are witnessing in school these days.”

Amachree said there was no more family values anywhere and that it had been eroded. He said: “These days, when a child is punished in school for an offence, parents will go to school to fight the teachers. What do you expect from such a child if not to carry arms and ammunition? If we continue like this, we may have what is bigger than Boko Haram, bandits, kidnapping and other vices.”

 

The security expert argued that the best solution for this heartbreaking situation among secondary schoolchildren was for parents to teach their children from homes, before sending out. “There are no more traditional values in the country anymore and whoever the police arrest, should be kept in the juvenile house, to allow him or her to grow to age where such a suspect will be prosecuted in a court of law.”

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Angel Guard Security Company, Mr. Israel Asigbe, said: “Whether we like it or not, the parental problem is the major cause of escalating crimes and violence in secondary schools. Divorce among parents often affects children left behind.  Politicians also contribute to what we are seeing in secondary schools these days. Everywhere, you go today you will find vulcanizer, mechanic, carpenter and a lot of artisans who are into cultism. It is before you find cultists and the practice of cultism in campuses.”

 

Asigbe explained that some of the students, whose parents work for politicians, behaved in the way they see their parents behave, especially during election.

 

He said: “It is what they see their parents do that they do. It will take the grace of God for some of these children to turn out well.  It’s not new that secondary school children are into gambling, taking drugs, while the girls are into prostitution. My advice is that those arrested with arms should be killed in the presence of their friends so as to serve as a lesson to others.”

A retired Commissioner of Police, Frank Odita said the use of guns by secondary school students was as a result of parental deficiency and the economic situation in the country.

He said: “A situation where parents don’t have control over his children is bad. The young girls have also taken to drug and prostitution. If parents want to have a better tomorrow, they should train their children before sending them out to school and this is because charity begins at home. Right now in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Such students when arrested should be put in a remand until adult stage, when he or she can be prosecuted.”

 

An official with Civil Society Legislative Action Centre (CISLAC), and Manager Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, Mr. Salaudeen Hashimu, said the first service to a child, begins with his parents. He said that it was due to parents and government failure, that people are witnessing instances of secondary school students carrying arms and then gambling.

 

Hashimu added: “Abandoning of children to caregivers also contribute to children lifestyle, which is why you can see boys changing into females and male getting pregnant in the name of transgender. Basically, it is the failure from parents that gave room to what we are witnessing. What we are witnessing in Nigeria is not peculiar to us alone. There is alarming rate of small arms in circulation. In Nigeria, we have about 13.5 schoolchildren drop out and these children are into different kind of crimes to survive. We should inculcate cultural values that talked about moral, respect and not hooliganism and taking up of arms.

The private sector is also not helping matter; they don't promote cultural values and education. They only promote entertainment where winners go home with millions of dollars. This makes education valueless in the society today.”