Ogun to prosecute parents, student for assaulting school principal

OGUN State government, yesterday, vowed to prosecute one Akanni Azeez Olawale, a Senior Secondary ( SS3) student of Agbara Grammar School, in AdoOdo/ Ota Local Council of the state, and his parents for allegedly assaulting a teacher of the school.

The Guardian learnt that trouble started on Wednesday, February 14, when the school’s principal, Ajibola Olanrewaju, seized Olawale’s uniform for allegedly behaving unruly and in a manner that constituted lack of respect for constituted authority.

According to a source, the principal maintained that since Olawale had gone to another private school to register for the May/ June West African Senior Secondary School ( SSS) Examinations, he had no business parading himself as a student of the school, hence, the decision to seize his uniform.

“Olawale, who apparently did not take the principal’s pronouncement lightly, went back home and stormed the school some minutes later with his parents. All efforts to pacify and explain the situation of things to the parents failed, as they started attacking the principal. In the course of this, the student, Olawale, slapped one of the teachers and tore his clothes,” the source said.

Reacting, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Abayomi Arigbabu, said both the student and his parents would soon be made to answer for their act of misdemeanour before a competent court of law.

He said: “I learnt that the parents are already begging but I have insisted that they will get to court. It is a challenge that we had in the past when some parents were joining their children to attack teachers but since one of the parents bagged six months of community service, the rubbish has stopped. So, in this one too, the state government will prosecute those involved. That is the only way to send signals to others that may want to travel this unpopular and crude way.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools ( ASUSS), Ogun State, Seun Agbesanwa, condemned the incident, urging the state to ensure that appropriate sanctions were meted out to those involved.