Eva Adelaja Girls: Principal, Vice Principal & 4 Teachers Suspended Over Student’s Assault

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Last week, Ogechi Anyalewechi, a 14-year-old SS2 student of the Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary School, Bariga, Lagos, was allegedly stripped at the school’s staff room and brutally flogged on her bare buttocks and back by the principal and five others for slapping the head girl (read here).

The Lagos State Government has now suspended the school’s principal, Mrs. C.O. Coker, vice principal, Mrs. Balogun, and four other teachers; Mr. Bello (Mathematics), Mrs. Tejumaye (English language), Mrs. Omoge (Physical Education) and Mr. Bakare (Economics) implicated in the brutal assault. According to Punch, the state government may also prosecute them.

Some students of the school had protested on Thursday after a panel set up by the government to investigate the allegations recommended their suspension, saying Ogechi was not a goddess that could not be flogged. However, it appears justice will be served.

Ogechi’s older brother, Joseph, said the Ministry of Youth and Social Development had assured the family that it would take up the case against the principal and others.

He said, “The ministry has a department, the Department of Social Works, which is responsible for the protection of minors. And since Ogechi is a minor, they said they would take it up against them. I am happy that the case of Ogechi has got to this level of attention and I believe it will help to caution other teachers to be careful when meting out punishments to students.”

Joseph said the state government had urged that the 14-year-old be allowed to continue attending the school but the family is yet to decide.

Ogechi however does not want to. She said, “I regret slapping the prefect back. But with what has happened, I won’t like to continue in the school. Everybody has been looking at me as an enemy. They don’t talk to me.”

Meanwhile, the victim’s mother, Esther, has said the family was not interested in ‘bringing down’ the culprits, appealing that the government tempers justice with mercy on the erring workers.