Last week, some Department of State Services (DSS) operatives invaded the neighbouring Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Calabar, the Cross River State capital. They were said to have stormed the school because a teacher flogged a pupil whose aunt works with the DSS. The teachers are demanding justice, reports NICHOLAS KANU from Calabar.
A few blocks separate them and until last week, they were good neighbours. But now, things have fallen apart between the Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Calabar, the Cross River State capital, and the Department of State Services (DSS).
The relationship became strained following the alleged brutalisation of some teachers, the seizure and damage of the school’s property by some security operatives.
On Tuesday, the teachers under the aegis of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), stormed the Cross River State House of Assembly to protest the alleged maltreatment of some of them by DSS operatives because of an SS3 pupil, Grace Loveth-Asuquo.
The incident occurred last Thursday when a Civic Education teacher, Mr Owai Owai, gave some SS3 pupils two strokes of the cane on their palms for punishing a junior girl while classes were on. Grace reported the matter to her mother whose sister works with the DSS.
Owai said: “The girl in question is in SS 3F. I was going to teach SS 2F when I met a junior pupil sweeping SS3F classroom. So, I asked them who asked the junior pupil to sweep the class, because I always warn them not to use juniors to clean their classes because the juniors have their own classes and still have to attend their lessons. I decided to punish the whole class by giving them two strokes of the cane each on their palms.
“The girl was not the only one that I flogged. After that I left and went to SS2F to teach. I had just finished my first two lessons and went to SS3E to continue with my third and fourth periods when all of a sudden the mother and aunty, who works with the DSS and another unidentified man walked into the classroom and started flogging me with my cane in front of the pupils. When my colleagues who heard what was going on intervened to stop them, they pulled me out of the class and continued beating me. The man told me to my face that he would have just killed me silently and nothing would happen.
“Because of the intervention of the teachers, the aunty called for a reinforcement of DSS operatives. Of course we are neighbours, just a few blocks away and they came in three Hilux vans. They were at least 15 fully armed men. By then some other teachers had whisked me into hiding else I don’t know if I would be alive talking to you. I heard how they came here and were beating people up and shooting indiscriminately.”
Another teacher, who did not want to be named, continued: “After Mr Owai was taken away to safety, the DSS in three Hilux vans and fully armed entered the school and started beating up people randomly. They were beating teachers up, both male and female. When they noticed that the gate had been locked, they went to the gate and shot severally. You can see the bullet holes yourself. They destroyed the lock on the gate. When they were done with shooting sporadically and beating staff up inside the school compound, they now carried the girl and left. The girl has since been expelled.
“We are under the Ministry of Education. They have been given a comprehensive report on what happened and we believe that they will take appropriate actions to address the matter.”
The teacher said it was not the first time security agents would invade the school.
“In fact, just the day before, on Wednesday, something similar happened. The day before a senior pupil punished a junior colleague for not doing morning duty and the junior called her elder sister who is a student of the University of Calabar. The sister came here with 11 girls and a soldier to cause trouble. Fortunately, they did not see the senior pupil they came for, else who knows what would have happened. After we threatened to call the Brigade Commander over the incident, the soldier just left with the girls without incident.
“To be honest, even now, we are not too sure of ourselves. We don’t know the next line of action. Our safety is not really guaranteed. The relevant authorities should live up to expectations. All of us cannot be carrying guns. We use this opportunity to ask the government to do something about the porousness of the school – it is not fenced.”
Mr John Ndarake, a Further Mathematics teacher, who was allegedly brutalised, narrated his experience.
“My jaw and wrist were broken in the incident. I was just coming from class when I met the scene. I tried to ask what the problem was to quell the situation, and the next thing, the DSS operatives descended on me. One of the women with them said she was going to burn the school. They used the gun butt and broke my jaw, which as you can see is swollen and my wrist. I had to go for an X-ray and I will be getting the results today to proceed with treatment.”
Mr Uguru Kalu, an Agricultural Science teacher, also alleged he was manhandled and injured.
An elderly female teacher, who did not want to be named, claimed her phone was seized for taking photographs of the incident.
“I was taking pictures of the incident when they descended on me. They pinned me down, dragged and collected my phone and bag. I lost N80, 000 from my bag on that day. The bag and phone were later returned. The bag had been damaged and they deleted all the pictures from my phone. All I ask is that justice be done. That is our only hope. We carry chalk and teach. We are harmless. Instead of security agents to protect us, they rather come here to kill us. As I speak with you I am still having body pains due to the manhandling I received.
Another teacher, who did not want to be named said: “We, as teachers, have not been fairly treated. Is it because we don’t have money? In spite of all the efforts we put in, we do not even get recognition in the society and on top of that we get this kind of treatment. Is there anyone that was not taught by a teacher?
‘’Coming to a school and beating teachers up and shooting sporadically, is that what security agencies should be doing? Treating teachers like common criminals. It is so sad. Imagine if a child was shot and killed on that day, so the parents would just be in their house and hear that the child that they sent to study had been killed in the school compound by security agents. Something must be done about this.”
ASCSN Chairman Comrade Ogunyemi Akinwunmi said the union would protest until its members got justice.
“As a union we have written a petition to our national headquarters in Lagos. The union is not taking this lightly. Our slogan is injury to one is injury to all. If we don’t tackle this now, we don’t know where it would happen next. We want the world to know what happened here. It would not be swept under the carpet. Even though the Ministry is doing something, the union cannot just sit. We cannot be teaching their children and they are beating us up,” he said.
Speaking on the incident, one of Grace’s classmates (names withheld), who ordered the junior pupil to sweep the classroom, said Grace had complained that she was not in the good books of the teacher.
“I was the one that called the SS1 pupil to sweep the classroom. I begged her to help us sweep the classroom. So, when I saw Mr Owai, I was scared because he had warned us against it. When he came in and asked who told the junior pupil to come, I said I. He flogged me and told the whole class to kneel down and then went on to flog everyone in the class. The girl affected was saying she was not feeling well; maybe, the way she spoke made him angry and he flogged her again. I don’t know if she called her mother.That is what I witnessed. The teacher left our classroom after that,” she said.
A pupil of SS3E, who was there when the DSS officer came in, said: “We were in the classroom when one man who we did not know came and was shouting. He said he wanted to see the teacher who flogged the pupil and when he was shown him, he brought a cane and flogged the teacher. He was with two other women. Other teachers intervened and took the matter outside where we did not see what was going on again. Later on, we heard some gunshots.”
When The Nation contacted the DSS for comments, an official who did not want to be named, denied the teachers’ claims of brutalisation. He said on the contrary, it was Grace’s mother and aunt who were attacked by the teachers.
He said: “We received a distressed call earlier that day that some hoodlums were harassing the school, so we went there to help out like we have been doing on previous occasions when they needed help from us. We are good neighbours and we have never failed to rise to the occasion anytime we get a distress call from them.
“They called us that hoodlums have come to attack the school. By the time we got there to sort out the issue the hoodlums had escaped.
“Later that same day, a female staff member of the service went to investigate the harassment of her niece in the school by a teacher alongside the mother of the girl. There was no man with them. Think about it. Is it possible for one man to fight all the teachers in the school? Absolutely not! The women were rather harassed by the teachers and called for help and operatives went to the school to rescue the women, which they did and brought them to the office. There was no shooting in the premises. The school locked the officers and they had to demobilise the gate which led to the unfortunate incident of shooting at the gate.
“We are working with the management of the school to work things out amicably. We have had a very wonderful relationship with the school that has been mutually beneficial.”
It was learnt that investigations had been opened on the matter and those found culpable would be sanctioned.
