When teachers prey on their students

While school teachers are part of the essence of moulding the nation’s future leaders, the activities of some especially, those sexually molesting the students under their tutelage is increasing and worrisome. Lagos: In July 2017, two male teachers of a Lagos State Government Secondary School in Epe were declared wanted after they serially raped 10 […]

While school teachers are part of the essence of moulding the nation’s future leaders, the activities of some especially, those sexually molesting the students under their tutelage is increasing and worrisome.

Lagos:

In July 2017, two male teachers of a Lagos State Government Secondary School in Epe were declared wanted after they serially raped 10 female students of the school and in the process, infecting them with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

It was reported that the teachers allegedly took turns in raping the students after threatening to fail them in their subjects till they were exposed when one of the students was diagnosed to have been infected with the disease.

It was reported that none of the students knew they were infected until one of them complained of an unusual discharge to her mother and when she was taken to a hospital, she was discovered to have been infected with STD.

Another student who was said to have confided in one of her friends of a similar discharge discovered that her friend had the same problem.

A staff member narrated that during an investigation by the school after the case was reported, other victims confirmed that they were also raped by the teachers on different occasions.

When contacted, the Director of the Office of Public Defender (OPD), Mrs. Olubukonla Salami, confirmed the report, saying that the cases had been reported to them and investigation had begun.

In November 2015, a secondary school teacher with the Akintan Grammar School, Surulere, Lagos State, Benedict Ekpenyong, was nearly killed by a mob after he allegedly abducted a 14-year-old student and raped her repeatedly.

The girl identified as Blessing happens to be Ekpenyong’s student and whom he had invited to his house at Ogunfunmi Street, Akobi Crescent, Surulere, and locked her up.

But the randy teacher was not aware that some of his neighbours had seen him and became suspicious. The neighbours mobilised other residents who stormed his apartment and forced the door open.

Ekpeyong was reportedly beaten before he and the student were taken to the Alakara Police Division.

In June 2016, a nursery 2 female pupil was sexually harassed at the school premises by her teacher Miss Violet, a 27-year-old school mistress.

In October 2016, a teacher Enilolobo Olamilekan, lured his junior secondary 2 student into his parents’ apartment at Abogunloko Area, Ikotun.

In August 2017, a 23-year-old teacher, Ibrahim Idris, appeared before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly raping three teenagers of the same parents.

The accused, who teaches Arabic, resides at No. 2, Kelani St., Adealu Bus Stop in Dopemu, Lagos.

The prosecutor, Clifford Ogu, told the court that the offence was committed from May to August, 2017 at the residence of the accused.

Mr. Ogu said the three sisters, whose ages range from seven to 12 years, were receiving Arabic and Islamic lessons from the accused.

“The parents did not know that the accused was sexually molesting their daughters until they relocated to another area and needed to change their Arabic school. The youngest of the girls told the mother that they didn’t want another uncle to be teaching them.”

Mr. Ogu said on hearing her daughter’s remark, the mother asked questions and was told what the previous teacher was doing to them.

 

Niger:

In March 2017, the Vice Principal, Government Day Secondary School, Tunga-Minna in Niger State, Malam Mohammed Kuyizhi, appeared before the state’s Child Rights Protection Agency, over the pregnancy of a 16-year-old student.

The girl was a junior student in the school.

Hajiya Mariam Kolo, the Director-General of the agency, who presided over the case in Minna, said the matter was reported to the agency by a teacher, after the girl’s guardian informed the school that her ward was pregnant for the teacher.

Kolo quoted the victim as telling the agency that the accused was a very close friend of her guardian and had consistently visited their [victim’s] home.

“The girl also said the accused had sex with her three times in his office. She further said that she was always given between N50 and N100 for her transport, after the affair with the teacher,” Kolo said.

The Director-General further quoted the girl as accusing the teacher of giving her some pills after she informed him of the pregnancy, but that she threw them away.

She said the girl, however, confessed to taking the pills when they were offered to her a second time.

According to Kolo, the girl experienced severe pains after taking the pills, forcing her to inform her guardian.

Kuyizhi admitted to the sexual affair, but claimed that the girl seduced him into the act.

He also told the agency that he penetrated the girl, but did not release semen and could not, therefore, be responsible for the pregnancy.

Kuyizhi, however, pleaded with the agency for leniency and promised to take responsibility for the pregnancy.

 

FCT:

In March 2016, a 28-year-old teacher identified as Goddy, was arrested by police in Kubwa, for allegedly raping an 18-year-old student he was preparing to sit for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations.

According to reports, the teacher who ran a centre for extra-mural lessons, was said to have had unlawful carnal knowledge of the girl before the current incident that put him in trouble, when he raped her again at the centre situated in a secondary school.

An eyewitness narrated how Goddy was caught: “While in the classroom, Goddy caressed the girl and later removed her clothes before he had carnal knowledge of her. The teacher was nabbed after the girl narrated the incident to her parents who later reported the matter to the police.”

Upon his arrest, the suspect reportedly confessed to the crime, noting that it was not the first time he had had sex with the student whom he said was his girlfriend.

 

Ekiti:

In March 2016, one Mr. Babatunde Ibitoye, a school proprietor in Ado Ekiti, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Ekiti High Court, for raping a 10-year-old pupil of his school.

Justice Toyin Abodunde gave the ruling on agreeing that all the evidence presented proved beyond doubt that Ibitoye was culpable of the crime. Ibitoye will serve 10 years in jail. 

The Director of Public Prosecutions also agree with the evidence presented against the school proprietor, who was caught at the scene of the crime.

He said, “I rely heavily on the evidence of the victim that the defendant had been having sexual relationship with her before he was caught. That some of the teachers even gave evidence that she bled profusely a few days before that time further confirmed that she had been sexually abused.

“The fact that the defendant was caught pants down was suffice to prove that the accused committed the offence contrary to Section 31(c) of the Ekiti State Child Rights Law 2013.”

The school proprietor, who was said to be the owner of God’s Grace Nursery and Primary School, Ekiti, was caught in the act around a bush at Fayemi market.

He did this under false pretense, succeeding in luring the victim under the guise of taking her home.

In July 2015, a primary school teacher in Ado Ekiti, Kareem Akinyemi, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a High Court for allegedly raping his nine-year-old pupil.

Handing down the sentence, the presiding judge, Olayemi Abodunde, noted that the prosecution had proven its case that Akinyemi actually defiled the girl after drugging her with a substance he put in a drink for her.

The State Counsel, Oyin Olatunbosun, had earlier told the court that the accused committed the offence at his residence at No. 45, Surulere Street, Ise-Ekiti.

Olatunbosun said the accused, on the said date, unlawfully raped the nine-year-old girl, when her mother sent her to buy milk.

She said the accused was a teacher at St. Stephen’s Primary School, Ise-Ekiti, and also the victim’s private home teacher, and after the assault, the girl experienced pains after urinating and confessed to her mother what her teacher did to her.

Condemning the act, Judge Abodunde berated Akinyemi: “I am convinced that the prosecution has proved that the accused sexually abused and exploited the child. Teachers are supposed to be destiny helpers and shapers not destroyers.”

In October 2015, Mathew Oluyede, a 51-year-old primary school teacher in the state, was remanded in prison custody by an Ado-Ekiti Magistrates’ Court until November 17 when his case will be up for hearing, for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting four of his pupils, aged between two and nine.

Oluyede who is married with grown up children, was arraigned before Magistrate Taiwo Ajibade, for allegedly defiling the minors at various times in the school, according to the prosecutor, Sgt. Akinwale Oriyomi, committed the offences between October 19 and October 21, at Ayetoro-Ekiti in Ido Local Government Council of the state.

Magistrate Ajibade did not take the plea of the accused, ordering that he be remanded at the Ado-Ekiti Prison until the next date of adjournment, while awaiting the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), for legal advice.

 

Oyo:

In November 2016 a 10-year old boy was raped by his 20-year old primary school teacher Obi, in Ashaka Itamaya Area of Ibadan.

Also, in January 2017, an Ibadan Chief Magistrate’s Court remanded 40-year-old teacher, Sampson Eyo, in prison custody, for allegedly raping his nine-year-old pupil.

Chief Magistrate Taiwo Oladiran directed that the accused be remanded at Agodi Prisons custody pending advice of the Oyo State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Consequently, the court did not take the plea of the accused. Eyo, a teacher in a nursery and primary school at Bashorun, Ibadan, was arraigned on a one-count charge.

The prosecutor, Sergeant James Oriola, told the court that the accused had unlawful carnal knowledge of the pupil between September 2016 and January 19, 2017.

Oriola said: “Eyo, being the girl’s class teacher and also her lesson teacher, lured the girl after lesson period and had carnal knowledge of her at 4p.m. in the school premises.

Oriola said the offence contravened Section 218 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Oyo State, 2000, which stipulates 14 years imprisonment for offender.

 

Bauchi:

In March 2017, two teachers at a primary school in Dutsen-Tanshi, Sani Abubakar (39) and Hassan Usman (33), gang-raped a six-year old pupil.

 

Borno:

In November 2015, Saidu Mohammed, a teacher with Bulunkutu Science and Islamic Primary School in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, was arrested and charged before a state High Court for allegedly raping two pupils aged six and seven respectively.

The police prosecutor, Corporal Jackson Peter, earlier tendered a written statement purportedly signed by Mohammed where he stated that he took the two girls to an uncompleted building in the school and had sex with them.

The accused allegedly wrote in the statement that a few days after he had sex with the two girls, he again invited one of the girls, gave her tea and bread and had another round of sex.

 

Nasarawa:

In July 2017, the police paraded the vice principal of Government Secondary School, Nasarawa for allegedly raping a 16-year-old female student and one primary school teacher for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old pupil.

The then Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Sadiq Bello, who paraded the suspects alongside other criminals during his monthly press briefing, said, “One Yakubu Ibrahim, 45 years, the vice principal of Government Secondary School, Nasarawa, was arrested for luring his student aged 16 to a hotel in Nasarawa town where he had canal knowledge of her. The suspect confessed to the crime.”

The other suspect, he said, was a primary school teacher, one Abubakar Abdul, 30, arrested for having unlawful canal knowledge of a male pupil, a 13-year-old outside the school premises in Sabon Gari ward, Doma Local Government Area.

The police said further investigation revealed that Abdul, who also claimed to be a football coach, had sexual contacts allegedly with other kids.

 

Katsina:

In July 2016, a 9-year-old pupil was raped by a 33-year-old teacher Hamisu Galadima of Nasarawa Annex Primary School who was also accused of luring other girls into the staff room before defiling them.

In August 2017, a primary school headmaster, Sule Yusuf, was remanded in a Katsina prison following an allegation that he had sex with a four year old boy.

The 57-year-old Yusuf was alleged to have committed the offence inside his office at Salihawa Primary School, Tunge-Zuri village in Musawa Local Government Area.

The police told the court that the mother of the victim, Aisha Kabiru, reported the incident to the head of Tungen Zuri Village, Alhaji Kabir Hussain, who in turn informed the police.

 

Benue:

In July 2017, a Makurdi Magistrates’ Court remanded a 22-year-old teacher, Emmanuel Duke, in prison custody for alleged homosexuality.

The Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Adama Owochio, told the court that the case was reported at the Eke Police Outpost, Ugbokolo Division, Okpokwu Local Government Area by one Christian Adudu of Eke Ajide village on June 20.

“The victim’s father told the police that the accused, who was a teacher at the Kizito Nursery and Primary School in the area, asked his 11-year-old pupil to see him during break. The accused tied the victim’s face with a red handkerchief and had sexual intercourse with him through his anus twice,” the prosecutor said.

He alleged that two other parents of pupils of the same school between the ages of 11 and 12 years also reported that the accused had sexual intercourse with their sons through the anus.

The Magistrate, Mrs Franca Yuwa, did not take the plea of the accused due to lack of jurisdiction.

Owochio said investigation into the matter was still ongoing and asked the court for adjournment.

According to him, the offence contravenes Section 285 of the Penal Code Law of Benue, 2004.

 

Edo:

In March 2016, a 47-year-old teacher, Rotimi Olayemi, was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in his office.

According to the prosecutor, Osasu Ewemade, Olayemi, a married father of three and an English teacher at the King of Kings College, Benin, allegedly invited the girl who was his student, into his office and defiled her by fondling, kissing and dipping his fingers into her, on May 26, 2014.

Ewemade told the court the offence contravened Section 360 of the Criminal Code, Cap 48, Vol. II, Law of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria, 1976, as applicable in Edo state.

When the charges were read to him, the accused pleaded not guilty but the presiding magistrate, Igho Braimoh, found him guilty on all counts and sentenced him to one year in prison on each count, with the terms running concurrently.

 

Yobe:

In July 2016, an 8-year-old pupil was raped  by a 46-year-old primary school teacher, Muhammad Bashir, in his residence.