Ilupeju Grammar School
Taskforce
on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit, in Lagos
State, has raided Ilupeju Grammar School, located at Ilupeju in Oshodi,
that was turned into a brothel where hoodlums pay guards to allow them
sleep with their female companions at night, arresting two guards at the
school in the process.
The
two guards, Mr. Julius Okenla, 60, and Mr. Adebowale Adeloye, 45, were
charged to court after being accused of allowing hoodlums to sleep with
their female friends in the school after they had allegedly been paid.
Hoodlums
who want to sleep in the school, it was learnt pay between N200 and
N300 to the guards, while those with female companions pay N700.
The
guards, however, pleaded not guilty as they stood before a Special
Court in Alausa where they were arraigned, and were granted bail in the
sum of N50,000 each, plus two sureties each who must have evidence of
three years tax payment.
They were sent to Ikoyi Prison pending when they will meet the bail conditions.
In
his reaction, Taskforce Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, a Chief Superintendent
of Police, said some of the hoodlums not only paid money to the
security guards to be allowed to sleep inside the school but also
vandalized the school’s property.
According to him, school
authorities had been complaining that hoodlums messed up their schools
and excrete on students’ lockers, adding that such things might be
happening in other schools where touts pay money to sleep in them and
carry out their nefarious activities.
Speaking on the arrest of
the school guards, Principal of Ilupeju Grammar School, Odi-Olowo Local
Council Development Area, Lagos, Otunba Y.O. Bashorun, said he couldn’t
really say if the guards were collecting money from miscreants to sleep
within the school premises since he did not catch them red-handed.
“Could
you believe that we have just two security men as big as this school
is? One for morning and another one for night duty. What can one person
do in the midst of multitude? In fact, we usually pay the good ones
among the touts to help assist them while on duty.
“What we want
now is for the government to come to our aid. This environment is not
conducive for learning. We are surrounded by motor parks and touts.
Opposite us is Ilupeju park, behind us is Ibadan park. They always
disturb us with their blaring loud speakers while soliciting for
passengers.
“If you go round the school, you will see what I am
talking about. Touts usually scale the fence to gain entrance into the
premises. Some parts of the wall have even been broken by these people.
If you wait till about 6-7.p.m., you will see them coming in.”
He
said further, “weekend is the worst. You will see them washing their
clothes by the school tap and they will dry it on the school wall.
Sometimes if I come to do some work here on Saturdays, I have to lock
myself up in this office because I don’t want anybody to come and attack
me.
“By Monday morning, the classrooms would have been littered
with faeces, urine an all sorts of dirt. Some danfo (commuter bus)
drivers even park their vehicles in this compound without the consent of
the school authorities. What they do is that they park the buses late
in the night and remove them early in the morning.”
“I so much
like what happened. It will send a signal to the miscreants that it is
not going to be business as usual in this school premises. The era of
coming here to pass the night and wash their clothes in the school
premises has gone. In fact, some of them have even fled.
“What we
want now is that the state government should come to our rescue and make
this environment conducive for learning. All the students see everyday
are different forms of social vices which is not okay for their learning
experience. We need tough, well trained security personnel and not old
men like we used to have before,” Bashorun said.
