The growing incidence of burglary and destruction of properties at a public school compound in Iju, Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State has become a source of concern to teachers, pupils and others in the community.
Hoodlums have been laying siege on the school premises, which houses five primary schools and two junior secondary schools, for weeks now. Many valuables including the school’s drums and other musical instruments, a radio set, a stabilizer, a power generating set and even the school stamp have been stolen in the process.
Sources at one of the schools, St Kizitos Catholic Primary School II, said the latest round of burglary began three weeks ago when the thieves invaded the headmistress’s office and several classrooms and carted away valuables. One of the sources told our reporter that the headmistress’s office was burgled again last Monday.
He said: “They gained entrance into the office through the ceiling and took away English and Mathematics textbooks supplied by the Lagos State Government through the Eko Excel initiative. The following day, Tuesday, they returned and vandalized white boards supplied to each classroom and went away with their aluminium frames.
“On Thursday, which is two days after, they came and removed portions of the metal windows in some classes to see what is remaining in the classrooms. They probably discovered that there were no more valuables in the classrooms, so they did not go in.”
He said the hoodlums have destroyed many of the newly-fitted metal windows; at least to peep through the opening thereby created, to find out if there are valuables in the classrooms.
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The source who does not want to be named added: “The school has become a den of hoodlums and social miscreants because it is open to all-comers. The fence has been brought down for close to two years now ostensibly to create room for the proposed fly-over at Fagba junction, which was to have begun then.
“But, the project appears to have been abandoned by the state government. Without a fence and security guards, the compound, which houses five primary schools have become a den for hoodlums at night. The two junior secondary schools beside us are not affected because their fence is still intact and security guards are on duty there day and night.
“The thieves have been burgling our school for some time now. The latest round of stealing may not be unconnected to the renovation work currently going on here. A philanthropist organization, the Budhani Charitable Trust is currently renovating the schools in this compound. It mobilized contractors to come and carry out the renovation; they fixed all the windows and doors, supplied whiteboards to all the classrooms and re-painted the entire school premises. You can see that everywhere is looking nice.
“The initial plan of the NGO was to install fans in all the classrooms to make the learning environment conducive for the pupils; they brought fans here last week or so. But when its officials discovered what was going on here, they took the fans away.”
Before the NGO volunteered to fix the doors and windows, classrooms on the premises had become sleeping quarters for social miscreants and other homeless citizens. But following the renovation of the schools, the classrooms had been put under lock and key and the school authorities felt it was safe to keep valuables in the headmaster’s office.