Four students of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, Lagos, have been arrested for attempted rape of school girls from Falomo senior high school, Ikoyi, Lagos.
After an eyewitness shared on social media how final year secondary school students sexually assaulted their female counterparts on their last day in school at Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, in what has been described as a “tradition”, the Lagos State Government is said to be hunting for the students responsible.
THE PUNCH reports on Thursday that four of the students had been arrested after the Lagos State Government tasked the police with tracking the perpetrators down.
According to the story shared by Michale Matthew, female students of Falomo Senior High School, who had just finished their final exam were targeted by male students of Ireti Grammar School, South West Ikoyi, who had also taken their last paper on Wednesday.
Matthew gave a graphic account of how some of the students pinned down their struggling victims, as their colleagues herded around, cheering the assailants.
The eyewitness, who apparently works in the neighbourhood of the schools, was closing for work that day when she chanced on the scene.
She said, “Their shouting overpowers any other sound and looking closely, I see the most unreal thing. It is actually a boy trying to force himself on a girl with his trousers partly down and the boys are cheering him on.
“People are looking and some persons, the security guards in the office near us are recording it. I open my car in disbelief and shout at the boys to break it up while shouting at my security and the second driver to assist me.
“I walk towards them and as I make my way towards them, I see another group and this time they have cornered one of the girls who fell while running from them.
“I see her kicked down, she bravely pushes herself up and another guy tries to clear her legs and she lunges at him and then a guy takes a pair of scissors in his hands and with one swoop tears her skirt from the bottom and also a part of the black spandex shorts she has on underneath.
“All this happens really in a few minutes and he proceeds to push himself into her through her back. His trousers is open too and another one tries to do same from the front. As this is going on, the crowd of boys are wild with frenzy, cheering the two boys on, while grabbing at her hair, breasts and she is fighting for dear life.
“This is not before I get the names of the boys as George and Abiodun as the main perpetrators, they are final year students of Ireti Grammar School SW Ikoyi.”
She said after intervening and forcing some of the boys to flee, she personally escorted some of the girls who clung to him for safety to the motor parks to board vehicles to their various homes.
On Thursday, policemen from the Adeniji Adele Police Division, the Social Welfare Department of the Lagos State Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development and officials from the deputy governor’s office stormed the schools to trace some of the boys who could be identified as the perpetrators.
Some of the boys were later apprehended with the police still on the trail of other schoolboys who took part in the attacks.
On Friday, the state Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Adebule, who oversees the state’s education ministry, confirmed the arrest in a statement.
“Four of the boys involved are already helping the law enforcement agents in apprehending others who participated in the reckless act,” she said.
The statement signed by the Assistant Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Education, Adesegun Ogundeji, indicated that the deputy governor had assured the public that extensive investigation will be conducted and all those found culpable would face the consequences of their indiscipline and lawlessness.
The deputy governor also called on parents and guardians to monitor their children’s actions in and out of their school premises.