Lagos teachers accused of infecting students with STDs now on the run 🏃

Strong indications have emerged that the two teachers of Nazareth College, Ibowon, Epe Area of Lagos, who were accused of defiling and infecting more than 20 female students of the secondary school with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have bolted. Investigations by Saturday Telegraph have revealed that the accused individuals who teach Yoruba Language and Mathematics in the school have been on the run since the report of their alleged misdemeanor appeared in the media. This was as the Deputy Governor in the state, Dr. Idiat Adebule, yesterday met with some of the victims, who were conveyed to her office by the officials of the Education District III in the state.

The students were still in office of the deputy governor till around 5pm yesterday waiting to meet Dr. Adebule for an undisclosed reason. The students, who were in their uniforms of green and white for the junior school students and pink and white for those in the senior classes, wore sad look as they waited patiently for the deputy governor to engage them.

According to an official of the Lagos State Government, who craved anonymity, claiming he was not authorised to speak on the matter, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has been worried by the development taking into consideration the series of negative reports emerging from the state’s education sector in recent time. According to the source since the issue was reported to the government by some parents through the office of the Lagos State Education District III comprising the four zones of Epe, Eti-Osa, Ibeju-Lekki and Lagos Island, government had ordered that the two teachers resume on daily basis to the district’s office on 123, Awolowo Road, Falomo, Ikoyi.

But the source noted that since the media got hold of the news, they had stopped reporting to the office and were neither found in the school. He, however, informed that the governor has requested security operatives to ensure their arrest wherever they might be hiding.

The government through the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) in the Ministry of Justice has also intervened by subjecting the students to medical examinations to ascertain the veracity of their claim. Saturday Telegraph had exclusively reported that the DSVRT team had visited the school on Friday, June 30, and took some of the students to its office where their medical examination was facilitated. However, one of the sources within the Ibowon community refuted the claim that the suspects had bolted, saying they still live within the town and that the two of them were seen walking together on Thursday night.

The source said; “Government cannot tell us that they have run away. In fact, they passed the front of my house on Thursday night at about 8pm. What we are after is that justice must be served because we can no longer understand what they are turning the training of our children to. “You can imagine that this Ibowon town is just about two kilometres to Igbonla where six children were kidnapped from the Lagos State Model Colleges.

Till date, we are yet to know the whereabouts of those children. Now those who are not kidnapped are being abused by the teachers who are saddled with the responsibility of taking care of them.” Meanwhile, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Michael Alogba- Olukoya, who coincidentally hails from the same Ibowon community, promised to investigate the allegation against the teachers.

He said he was shocked on hearing the news and promised that his organisation would collaborate with relevant security agencies to get to the root of the matter. The president, who spoke to our correspondent in a telephone conversation, explained that his administration was committed to sanitising the teaching profession and reclaiming the profession’s lost glory.