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Idogbo Secondary School students’ madness and the Upper Sapkonba factor

But for those who live in Upper Sakoonba in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, every otherperson familiarwith the place, the name evokes dread and fear. The community made up of an over bloated population of the low class with little or no infrastructure is the headquarters of cultism, excessive abuse of drugs, even among children, and kid prostitution. It is commonly said that one out of every three crimes committed in Benin City took place or has a trace to Upper Sakponba.

For example during the #End- SARS Protest that rocked the nation last year, the burning of police stations and correctional facilities in Nigeria started in Edo State and it was the attack on Ugbekun Police Station in Upper Sakponba. Also, the Edo State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s Office located at Upper Sakponba was attacked and thousands of bags of hard drugs were carted away even by women and children.

So, when on Friday, 3rd of December, 2021, the 1st Term Examination of Idogbo Secondary School, was disrupted by the students, nobody, not even neither the school authority nor the state government was surprised, as the students went brisk, destroying cars, offices, and setting buildings ablaze. A video has gone viral showing where students of the school were on a rampage, attacking teachers, police officers, and destroying cars while some offices were set ablaze According to an insider, who does not want his name in print, “We were shocked at the magnitude of what happened, though we have anticipated security problems as it has always been when we are writing exams.

“As our tradition here is, during the end of every term’s examination, we do invite security officers to avoid any breakdown of law and order, so the exam was to start on 3rd and stop on the 10th of December, days before vacation. “But, days before the exams started, we were battling with students throwing bangers and other explosives in the compound. So, when the exam started on Friday, 3rd December, we invited some policemen and vigilante members in case of any eventuality, because we anticipated that there could be a disturbance, the first set of policemen came, while we wait for other police officers.

“One of the policemen on duty was moving around the school compound, what happened was what some of us don’t know. But we saw that the students were chasing the policeman, so some of his colleaguescametorescuehimthatwas when the students started throwing stones and other weapons. When it became uncontrollable, teachers started running for their lives, then the children went on a rampage destroying everything on sight, the police were called from the Police Command. But they could not control them. “It was when they invited the DSS people that, they used gunshot to scare them away. Later the DSS personnel arrested about 49 of the students who were hiding in the bush.

They are now at the police command.” On Wednesday, December 8, a delegation of the Edo State Government led by the Governor, Mr. GodwinObaseki, visitedIdogboSecondary School to assess the level of damage on the school. Speaking shortly after inspecting the school facilities, Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, described the event as disturbing. According to her, “This is a very disturbing occurrence in this school. We are taking a very specific step to address this problem once and for all, to make sure it doesn’t happen in other parts of the state.

“We are going to review our policies on admission for us to decongest our schools. The population of this school is high, so we must ad- dress this issue before this school is reopened. His Excellency has approved the recruitment of teachers under the Edo STAR fellowship program so that we can fill in gaps that already exist in our senior schools. Damage has been done and there arestillsomeotheradditionalthings that we need to do to ensure that we provide a conducive environment for learning for this school and similar schools. “We want to create an enabling environment for all our students, not just infrastructure but also to provide psychosocial services for schools like this.

We are going to make sure that there are guidance counselors and there are careers counselors. “We are going to meet with all the communities where some of these students come from and meet with the parents and collectively come up with a solution that will help bring back discipline and accountability into our school. “Government has zero-tolerance for this kind of unruly behavior. It is not acceptable as there was no reason for this. We are not going to stand for this kind of behavior; the parents and the students are going to be held accountable for this,” she said.

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