The management of a private school (name withheld) in the Arepo area of Ogun State has refuted allegations by some parents that incisions were made on some pupils.

TheNigerian Metro reported that the parents alleged that the incisions resulted in health complications in their children.

One of the affected parents who identified herself simply as Abosede, the mother of a four-year-old Alamin, told our correspondent that she discovered an incision on his stomach on March 2.

She claimed to have initially noticed the mark after Alamin complained of persistent itching on the side of his stomach.

Abosede explained that three weeks after discovering the mark, her son fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, where doctors confirmed that the incision had caused an infection.

Speaking on a similar discovery, another parent, Oluwatoyin Adurogboye, said she noticed some changes in her three-year-old daughter, Karla, when she returned from school on February 28, adding that she thereafter fell sick.

Reacting to the allegations, the Director of the school, Abimbola Olawunmi, said the incisions did not take place in the school, adding that there was no evidence to prove they happened there.

She also claimed to have provided the parents with a series of evidence to disprove their claims.

She said, “The parents came on March 11 to lodge the complaints that they saw strange marks on their children. They showed me, and the girl said “aunty” rubbed pepper on her back. Number one, the school does not address anyone as ‘aunty’.

“The parents said it was the school and I said could you not have thought of other people? Even though it happened in the school, wouldn’t that child go with pain and fresh wounds and blood stains? The other boy was in school till last week Friday, so when did it happen that there was no record?”

I said you people go to places and you know yourselves. As a matter of fact, one of them referred the other to the school. Then, I also responded and said, ‘How about the other woman you keep your child with?’ Then, I also pointed to the boy’s mother and asked her if she considered those she leaves her children with, which included her sales girl and her mother’s sales girl.”

Oluwunmi further explained that the mother of the girl went upstairs during the conversation, came back and said the child did not point to anybody, adding that she told her that every child in the school knows the teacher by their name because it was part of the school’s policy for teachers to be identified by their names.

On the CCTV footage, Olawunmi said there was a glitch that was later fixed by an engineer on March 11, adding that the footage of what happened on the day the incident was said to have happened was recovered.

“When we went to the police station, the father spent two hours and saw how the child moved around until the child sat down to have the next class from 12 pm till 1:145 pm and from that time, they will start preparing them to go home by 2 pm. So, who will now go and do an incision during that period? I told them there was a power outage when they asked for the footage of the remaining time. And I have conversations on my phone about complaints by residents in the estate about why there was no light since February 26, and even when we had an inverter, it could not have lasted that long.”

The director alleged that the parents did not notify the school on time after discovering the incisions on their children’s bodies.

“I called the mother of the girl on March 9, and I said how is the girl doing and she said she had just been discharged. She did not tell me she found an incision on her. The other woman, her son still attended school on March 7. She did not say there was any incision on her son. I stand my ground that the incisions did not happen in my school. Everybody knows that the spot of the incisions will bring out blood, even if you wipe it, there will still be some sticky things that will be on the flesh.”

Meanwhile, the parents have involved the Department of State Services to investigate the matter.

A relative of one of the parents who spoke with TheNigerian Metro on Saturday on the condition of anonymity said the Secret Service had begun an investigation into the matter.

“The DSS has begun an investigation into the matter. We petitioned the DSS in Lagos and they replied that they could not handle it because it happened in Ogun State. So that led to the transfer of the petition to Ogun  State.”

Meanwhile, it was learnt that officials of the Ogun State Ministry of Education attempted to lock the school on Thursday, but the move was resisted by the school management.

Two parents have accused a private school in the Arepo area of Ogun State of carrying out unauthorised incisions on their children’s bodies.

The parents told TheNigerian Metro on Tuesday that the incision resulted in health complications in their children.

One of the affected parents, Abosede, the mother of a four-year-old young boy identified simply as Alamis, said she discovered the incision on her son’s stomach on March 2.

She claimed to have initially noticed the mark after Alamis complained of persistent itching on the side of his stomach.

Abosede explained that three weeks after discovering the mark, her son fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that the incision had caused an infection.

She said, “On March 2, my son started to complain that a side of his stomach was etching him. When I checked, I saw an incision on his body. When I asked what happened, he said he did not know who did it. When I saw the incision, it looked like he was sleeping when they did it because the marks were not straight.

“He talks a lot, so if he was conscious, he would tell me who did it. The third week after I saw it, he fell sick and I took him to the pharmacy and from there took him to the hospital where they said the incision caused the infection. They later prescribed some drugs which he used and was later getting better.”

Her concerns, however, grew when another parent, whose daughter attends the same school, reported a similar mark on her child’s body.

“The following day, I took him to my shop to monitor him. While I was in the shop, another parent who enrolled her daughter in the school came and told me she found a similar incision on her daughter’s body. I am a Muslim and my son attends only Arabic and home lessons. The woman is a Christian, so the only connection between her daughter and her son is the school.”

Speaking on a similar discovery, Oluwatoyin Adurogboye said she noticed some changes in her three-year-old daughter, Karla, when she returned from school on February 28, adding that she thereafter fell sick.

According to her, Karla had just recovered from malaria and an infection a week earlier. When her condition worsened, they rushed her to the hospital, where she was placed on oxygen due to breathing difficulties.

She said, “I went to pick her up from school on February 28 and anytime I picked her up, we arrested always gifting but that very day, she got in the cat and she slept off inside the car. She slept for six to seven hours that day. When we got home that day, I pulled her uniform and saw a scratch on her spine but I thought it was just a scratch. So, I  left her with my sister and nephew and went to my store.  While I was in the store, my sister called me three different times that she was still sleeping and also running temperature. Meanwhile, she was treated for malaria and infection a week before then.

“When I got home, she still had high temperature. Even when she woke up, she was not active. The following morning, she started coughing and vomiting. We later took her to the hospital and we ran a test but the doctor said there was no malaria or infection in her body.

We later took her home but the situation got worse and we went back to the hospital and she was admitted and placed on oxygen after the doctor discovered she had shortness of breath.”

She however disclosed that while in the hospital, she noticed the mark again and when she asked her about it, she tried to say something but could only mutter ‘my teacher’ five times before stopping.

She said,  “While in the hospital, I saw the mark again and when I asked her, she said my teacher five times and couldn’t talk again. It was when we got home and I asked her again, that she said it was her aunty that put pepper on her back in the school bathroom.

“I called my husband and sent the picture to him. I also showed my sister and they all confirmed it was an incision. I did not put an incision on my child’s body and it was when I got to Mrs Abosede she confirmed it on her son’s body too.”

The two mothers thereafter took their complaints to the school, but they claimed the proprietress denied any wrongdoing.

According to Karla’s mother, the proprietress told them to consider other places where their children might have got the marks, insisting that it did not happen in the school.

She added that when she requested to review the CCTV footage, the proprietress informed them that the cameras had not been functioning for several days.

“We also requested that she call her workers so that my daughter could identify the person but she declined. We went to the station the following day and they invited her and she said again that she had checked the footage and that she could not find anything. When we asked her to play the footage, she only played it from the hours of 10 am to 12:15 pm. When asked what happened between 12: pm and 2 pm, she said there was no light and my husband immediately told her that the school has an inverter. Then, she said again that the inverter was not working that day.”

While Abosede’s family dragged the school to court, Karla’s parents called on the authorities to investigate the development, while also insisting on seeing the remaining part of the CCTV.

The proprietress did not respond to calls made to her phone. However, she sent a text message, stating she would return the call. She had yet to do so as of the time this report was filed.

A Kwara State High court sitting in Ilorin on Monday ordered that the seven (7) suspects standing trial for the alleged murder of Mojisola Awesu, a student of the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa be remanded in the correctional facility.

Justice Ibrahim Yusuf gave the order following the absence of the counsel to 5th, 6th and 7th defendants in the court.

LEADERSHIP reports that counsel to the 1st and 4th defendants were not in the court on February 3, 2025 when the case was brought up for hearing.

Only the prime suspects, Adebayo Joshua Happiness and Timileyin Kolawole were remanded in correctional facility as at February 3, 2025.

The absence of the counsel to the 5th, 6th and 7th defendants in court on Monday did not go down well with Justice Yusuf who subsequently ordered that all the seven defendants be remanded in correctional facility until the March 4, 2025.

Happiness and Kolawole are the prime suspects accused of conspiring and causing the death of Awesu on August 9, 2024.

Happiness and his parents, Adebayo Adeniyi and Bukola Adeniyi were accused of conspiring and causing the disappearance and destruction of evidence on the matter, an offencse punishable under the Penal code law of Kwara State, 2006.

For their part, Adeoye Adeola, Lawal Aminat and Peter Bulus were accused of conspiring and dumping the corpse of the deceased at a dump site along Wara Road in Ilorin, which is punishable under the Kwara State Prohibition of Dealing in Human Parts Law, 2018.

As the January 2025 deadline for the implementation of the new curriculum approaches, schools, parents, and other stakeholders have raised concerns about the readiness and effectiveness of the educational framework.

With critical details still unresolved, there are worries about whether the timeline will be met. Stakeholders are awaiting clarity on how the changes will be executed and what impact they will have on students and the broader education system.

The government had previously announced that schools would begin rolling out the revised curriculum in January 2025.

However, despite plans to fine-tune the arrangements from October to December 2024 including teacher training and infrastructure development, many challenges remain.

These efforts were aimed at ensuring that both private and public schools would be ready for full implementation by the January deadline.

The new curriculum, intended to modernise education and better prepare students for future demands, has faced significant challenges regarding the readiness of schools, teachers, and resources.

It is expected to introduce 15 new trades for basic education, focusing on skills to enhance the employability of products from primary and junior secondary levels. These trades include basic digital literacy, IT, robotics, building and construction, hospitality, garment making, and agriculture.

Despite the reform’s potential, a recent tour of several public and private schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) revealed little evidence of readiness.

Many schools continue to struggle with outdated classrooms, insufficient learning materials, and inadequate support services, all of which threaten the successful implementation of the curriculum.

 

In the midst of these challenges, the new minister of education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, pledged to continue the progressive reforms of the previous leadership.

 

However, stakeholders have emphasised the need to address infrastructure issues, particularly the shortage of vocational training facilities and modern equipment, and have called for urgent action.

 

The principal of Divine Academy, Lugbe in Abuja, Jeremy Ugochukwu, stressed the importance of the government scaling up with the planned implementation of the new curriculum.

 

In an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend, he said the new curriculum would be a significant step towards improving the education system and aligning it with global standards.

 

“It’s necessary to ensure that students are equipped with the relevant skills for the future. The government should not hesitate in its commitment to this reform.

 

“While there may be challenges, the long-term benefits of a modernised curriculum are immense. It will help bridge the gap between the current system and the demands of the evolving job market,” he added

 

Also, an international educator from the United Kingdom (UK), Chizuruoke Collins Ezem, said the introduction of a skills-based curriculum in basic education is a timely and positive move, adding that it aligns education with workforce needs, equipping the students with practical skills and fostering entrepreneurial thinking.

 

However, he said its effectiveness would depend on proper implementation and consistent teacher training.

 

“Most schools currently lack adequate facilities for vocational training. Investing in modern equipment, and providing training for instructors should be prioritised,” Ezem said.

 

A parent and a retired engineer, Mathias Ben, supported the new curriculum, describing it as a crucial step in addressing the growing unemployment rate among youths.

 

He, however, called on the government to fast-track its implementation. “By focusing on practical skills and vocational training, it will help equip students with the tools they need to succeed in the workforce.

 

“It’s vital for the future of our youths and the nation as a whole,” he said.

 

Distraught parents currently facing emotional trauma over the kidnap of their daughter, Abasifreke Joseph, a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member from Utu Abak community in Abak local government area of Akwa Ibom State, have cried out for intervention from governments, corporate organisations and other well meaning Nigerians, to come to her aid.

“Abasifreke, is passing through serious trauma, compounded by other unknown ailments after spending several days with armed – wielding and heavily masked strangers in the forest,” the family said.

LEADERSHIP gathered, Miss. Joseph, cleared and mobilised for the compulsory national service, was kidnapped on January 9, 2025, along Enugu-Kogi road, while returning from Akwa-Ibom, to her place of primary assignment in Kogi State.

Abasifreke, who is a 2024 Batch C1 Corps member serving in Kogi State, the family explained, was a pioneer degree student of the State College of Education (CoE), Afaha Nsit, in Nsit Ibom LGA, following its affiliation to the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Akwa Ibom State.

The kidnapped victim, who was eventually released after the family had paid heavy ransom to secure her release, is lying critically ill and helpless at the General Hospital, Ukpom Abak, as the parents complained that virtually all their savings had been given to the bandits as ransom to secure her freedom, so there is no money for proper medical attention.

Speaking with journalists by the bedside of the victim after securing her sister’s freedom from the dungeon of the kidnappers in the thick Kogi forest, her elder brother, Victor Joseph, who spoke on behalf of the family, explained that he had to take her immediately to the hospital for check-up.

“The family had borrowed so much and even sold the only landed property to secure her release, and nothing is left to take care of her to recover from the trauma in this hospital.

“We are making a passionate appeal to governments at all levels and other good spirited members of the public to come to the aid of the family to give her proper medical attention,” he lamented.

 

Parents of a 13-year-old student of Etoi Secondary School, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, have cried out for justice in the pathetic case of their son, gang-raped in turns for three years after being hypnotised by a syndicate of six gay men.

However, operatives of the State Police Command, who launched investigations following a tip-off, swooped on the syndicate of ritualists specialising in the illicit gay practice with young male children within the age bracket of 10 and 13 years.

It was learnt the gang noted for their involvement in such illicit practices of sodomy and other unnatural acts of annal sex or homosexual affairs with young boys were successfully tracked, with six of them arrested.

Parading the suspects at the State Police Command Headquarters at Ikot Akpanabia, near Uyo, the state capital, along with others for sundry crimes of kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, vandalisation of public assets and utilities, the commissioner of police (CP), Baba Mohammed Azare, vowed to rid the state of crimes and perpetrators brought to justice.

“Based on information received from concerned journalists, a 13-year-old child reported being raped repeatedly for about three years by different men in sodomy practice.

“The operatives of the command swung into action immediately and arrested, the following suspects: Okwudili Levi Okeke, AKA, Eze, aged 34 years; Idara Itam Daniel, aged 23 years; David Udoh James, aged 23 years; Udofia Edem Udosen, aged 29 years; David Bassey Bassey; aged 26 years; and Daniel Jacob Edet, aged 30 years.

“Investigation revealed that Okwudili Okeke was recruited into sodomy and has had anal sex with several men in the state. This is a crime against humanity and will not be condoned. Suspects will soon be prosecuted after the completion of the investigation,” the CP vowed.

CP Azare, who took over the command late last month, has assured of his commitment to addressing the security challenges facing the state, especially the perennial farmers/herders’ crises and communal and boundary skirmishes.

“We are aware of issues such as Fulani herdsmen encroaching on farms and destroying crops, as well as senseless attacks on Fulani cows by troubleshooters. Let it be clear that the police will not fold their arms and allow miscreants to unleash terror on law-abiding residents,” stressing effective enforcement of the anti-grazing law.

Following rising cases of vandalisation of public transformers and infrastructural facilities across the state, the CP assured that efforts have been stepped up to nip the crime in the bud and arrest the perpetrators.

Consequently, some suspects, including one Prosper Brownson Jim and co – accomplice Uduak Sunday Benson, for vandalisation of a transformer belonging to Sure Foundation Polytechnic at Ikot Akai, in Ukanafun LGA, and recovery of the transformer, transformer oil, armoured cables and charms.

Other items recovered included four fire service trucks stolen by the agency’s officials and taken to neighbouring Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where four suspects were arrested.

“The command moved to recover the said trucks, and further investigation revealed that the fire trucks were leased out to some multinational companies at the rate of N140,000 per truck per day for an initial period of 3 years,” the CP explained.

A man identified as the police have arrested Rauf Mutiu for allegedly planning to exhume the remains of his parents to facilitate the sale of the late parent’s house.

Our correspondent gathered that the attempt to exhume the corpses of the parents at the Tinumola area of Dada Estate, Osogbo, was brought to an abrupt end with the intervention of his siblings, who were not carried along in the exercise.

Mutiu, who was said to have sold the house of his parents containing their grave for N16 million without the consent of his siblings, was consequently arrested for cooling his feet in police custody, where he crossed over to 2025.

Speaking to newsmen yesterday, one of the siblings, Rafiu Teslim, accused his elder brother of being high-handed, adding that Mutiu, an ex-policeman, had threatened to deal with his siblings who made any attempt to tackle him on their father’s property.

Also speaking, other siblings, including Rafiu Kadijat and Adedoyin Rukayat, alleged that Mutiu, the eldest, in connivance with the second born of the 7-member family, had sold their parent’s property and unilaterally attempted to exhume their parents to be buried somewhere else.

Osun State Command Police Public Relations Officer Mrs Yemisi Opalola confirmed the suspect’s arrest and disclosed that the investigation was ongoing.

She assured the suspect would be arraigned in the court after investigation.