The Kano State Government has ordered the immediate re-opening of Hasan Gwarzo Senior Secondary School, three months after ordering it shut over sodomy allegations.
The Commissioner of Information, Comrade Mohammed Garba, while briefing journalists Wednesday evening in Government House, Kano, said the decision was reached at the State Executive Council meeting which on Wednesday.
Garba said the state government had put some measures and guidelines in place which the school management must abide by in order to continue operation.
He added that the state government directed the school to provide adequate security within the school premises for up to 15 months to allay the fears of the students.
Also, the commissioner said that all the investigations by the Nigerian police and State Security Service will go on up to the end.
It can be recalled that 3 month ago, some parents complained on a radio programme INDARANKA on Freedom Radio, Kano that they observed a behaviour change in their children attending the school, leading to investigations which found that they had been sodomised by their senior schoolmates.
It was further revealed that six of the victims confessed to being threatened with death by some of the alleged perpetrators.
The widespread uproar generated by the story caused the state government to constitute a committee with the mandate to dig to the bottom of the matter and report to the state government.
After two weeks, the committee was able to establish the authenticity of the sodomy allegations, leading to the indefinite shut down of the school.
The state government also offered to pay the sum of 40 million naira to enable 75 students from the school take their West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in other schools while the school was under lock.
But the proprietor of the school, Professor Ibrahim Ayagi, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers, who were determined to destroy the good image of the school.
However, he confirmed that about five JSS 1 students had complained to the school authority twice that, the first week they resumed at the school, an unidentified person tried to remove their trousers in the night but quickly disappeared when he realized that the students were about to raise alarm.
He added that, in the second week of resumption, the same students reported a similar case to the school management.
Ayagi said, when the principal reported the case to him, he directed that every JSS 1 student should be attached to a prefect as a temporary measure of preventing reoccurrence of such incidence.
But one of the allegedly assaulted boys (name withheld), whose voice was aired by the radio station, confirmed that he was sexually harassed by an unidentified person who covered his mouth and forcefully sodomised him.
The student further confirmed that another JSS 3 student informed him that somebody had been assaulting him sexually since his first year in the school.
On the day of the occurrence, Hajiya Zahra`u Zainab Mustafa, a mother who spoke to The HERALD at the school shortly after she met with her two children that were schooling there, said that her children, JSS 1 and SS3 students, confirmed to her that cases of sexual harassment do happen in the school.
She said, “I will not take away my children from the school because such cases do happen in most schools including day schools and I don’t want to run away from bad to worst. I will rather leave them here and continue to pray for them.”
But Hajiya Maimuna Sa’idu Bello, who also visited the school on the same day, said “if not because my husband has directed me to wait until he comes back, I will right away go home with my children today now.
“From what I observed, the school authority is hiding something and only investigation can unveil the truth of the matter.”
Mrs. Bello therefore called on government and the police to conduct thorough investigation on the matter with a view to saving the students, parents and even the school authority by revealing the truth of the whole issue.
Another parent, Malam Zaharadden Hassan told The HERALD that his children have confirmed to him that there was no such issue in the school and that he will not remove them from the school till they finish successfully.
“I believe what my children said about the issue on ground and I will allow them to continue schooling there.
“I have quizzed my children through various ways to find out the truth of the matter but they insisted that there was nothing like that happening in the school and I am okay with their explanations, since they are the ones living there,” he said.
When asked on the action the management of the school will take, Prof. Ayagi said he will not let the matter to die, noting that “I am compiling my facts and I will take legal action on whoever is found to be an architect of this fabricated rumour.
“I am suspecting one of the parents to be the architect of this false information,” he said.
Ayagi explained that “the man came to the school trying to take away his child but I pleaded with him not to do that because some students do tell their parents such false stories in order to convince them to take them away from the school but he insisted that he wanted to take away his child.
“After a long argument, I allowed him to take his child but pleaded with him not to spread the false information so that the name of the school and indeed the students can be protected.
So, I think he used that against me and the school. It is my fault but I will follow appropriate channels to address the matter squarely,” he said.