…warns against sharing footage
…school reacts
The Lagos State Government has ordered the closure of all Chrisland Schools across the states over a sex scandal involving minors.
This is following the outrage by Nigerians after the alleged video showing the misconduct made its way to social media.
A statement issued by the state Ministry of Education read : ”
The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to the alleged sexual violence case involving students of Chrisland school 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’.
In the meantime, all Chrisland schools within Lagos State are hereby closed, pending further investigations”.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of Chrisland Schools has spoken on the sex scandal involving a 10 year-old girl, which forced the Lagos government to shut all the branches in the state.
The incident, captured in a viral video, occurred during a trip to Dubai for the World School Games that held between March 8 and March 14, 2022.
Amid the school’s closure and police probe, Akin Fadeyi, a member of the School’s Advisory Board issued a statement, giving a background of the Dubai trip and how the incident happened.
He said a total of 76 students were taken to Dubai.
Fadeyi said 71 of the students “ensured an untainted adherence to the standards, abiding with laid down regulations and code of conduct”.
“Within these 71, we kept our girls on the 11th floor and Boys on the 4th floor to draw clear lines that respect moral boundaries.”
“While we understand the emotions this has generated, we assure the public that our first approach as an institution was to assume parental roles by offering support to those involved and ensuring that nothing affected their senses of esteem. However, after a comprehensive evaluation of the situation, we cannot help but express how scandalised and distressed we feel as mothers, fathers and instructors with a relationship that holds a direct bearing on the development of those involved.
“We were, however, compelled to engage with the parents of the remaining students who unfortunately got themselves involved in misconduct, and in accordance with our code of conduct processes, which are well known to the parents, we meted out measured reprimands to them to instill a sense of discipline and as deterrence to others. This was also to caution our students on the need to remain on the path of resisting wrong influences.
“The disciplinary action was in order not to undermine our cohesive culture as a community of future leaders and committed instructors, but to be assertive in handing down the sort of discipline that seeks to correct and reform our children, when they stray from the path of rectitude.
“While we hasten to affirm that as an institution that is managing children from diverse backgrounds, we cannot lay claim to, or embark on any sense of self-righteousness in our approach, but we learn and evolve within the frames of best practices every single day. We recognise that there will always be space for improvement, we are therefore irrevocably committed to re-evaluating our processes to reinforce child protection protocols, even as we shall leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the senses of esteem of the children involved are uncompromisingly preserved.”
Fadeyi denied that a pregnancy test was conducted on the minor involved in the act as claimed by the mother, explaining that it was a COVID post travel test.
