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Lagos Govt shuts Chrisland schools across the state over sex abuse

Published

2 years ago

2022/04/18

The Lagos State government has shut down all branches of Chrisland Schools in various parts of the state over an alleged sexual abuse of one of its pupils.

Chrisland School allegedly suspended 10-year-old girl raped by fellow students

A statement from the government amid controversy over the issue, involving some pupils of the school taken on a trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the matter was being investigated.

“In the meantime, all Chrisland Schools within Lagos State are hereby closed, pending further investigations,” the government said.

The full statement read, “The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to the alleged sexual violence case involving students of Chrisland Schools which occurred in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“It is pertinent to note that all allegations are being investigated by the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including Ministry of Education, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Ministry of Justice and the Lagos State Domestic & Sexual Violence Agency, whilst the criminal allegations have been escalated to the Commissioner of Police.

“In view of the allegations, we are committed to ensuring that adequate medical and pscyho social support is provided.

“This is to reassure members of the public of the State Government’s commitment to safety and child protection, especially in ensuring that all child-centered institutions within the state, formulate and implement policies and systems that are compliant with the Executive Order (NO.EO/AA08 of 2016), Lagos State Safeguarding and Child Protection Program.

“We also use this medium to remind the general public that any person who engages in any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child, commits an offence and is liable to custodial sentence of fourteen (14) years. This includes “producing, distributing, receiving, or possessing an image of child pornography”.

Read some of the reactions online before the Lagos government’s actions.

So yeah, shut down Chrisland school indef. I’d vote for that. That’s a punishment those running that school would have deserved after two major unsavoury incidents. We don’t know the ones we don’t know. But Chrisland is just an another effect of deeper root causes in our society.
— JJ. Omojuwa (@Omojuwa) April 18, 2022

Long story short, Chrisland School has a duty of care for their pupils and students. They failed to enforce this on that Dubai trip. They might get sued by the parents. The state government should ensure schools have policies per duty of care and such policies should be enforced.
— Dr Dípò Awójídé (@OgbeniDipo) April 18, 2022