49 Secondary School Students Arrested In Edo For Setting Section of School Ablaze

No fewer than 49 Students of Idogbo Secondary School in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, have been arrested for going haywire last Friday and set a section of the school ablaze, as they also went ahead to vandalised the principal’s office.

The students, in a viral video, were seen chasing a man believed to be the principal.

In anger, the rampaging students returned to the school premises razed sections of the school in addition to destroying the principal’s office.

When contacted, the Edo State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Bello Kontongs, confirmed the incident.

The PPRO added that “49 students were in custody for willful damage of government property. None has been changed to court yet.”

According to Nigerian Tribune, the students resorted to violence when one of them had an altercation with one of the policemen drafted to the school to maintain law and order and in the process, overpowered the policeman, who was stripped by the irate students.

A source in the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, hinted that the school management invited security personnel in anticipation of security breaches in the school as it had become commonplace in the school, especially during festive and examination seasons.

The source added that it was the tradition of the school “during the end of every term examinations. We do invite security officers to avoid any breakdown of law and order, so the exam was to 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. So 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 is what some of us don’t know. But we saw that the students were chasing the policeman, so some of his colleagues came to rescue him, that was 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 in sight, the police was called from the Police Command. But they could not control them.

“It was when they invited the DSS people that they used gunshots to scare them away. Later the DSS personnel arrested about 45 of the students who were hiding in the bush. They are now at the police command.”