Senior Secondary School 3 (SSS3) students of Queen’s College, Yaba abandoned their mock examination on Monday to protest the allegation of sexual harassment leveled against one of their teachers, Mr Olaseni Oshifala.
While they put pressure on their teachers to let them out of the school gate, another group of protesters, who claimed to have been taught by Oshifala, stood outside the premises, condemning the allegations as falsehood.
The sexual assault story was first published online by Olorisupergal.com, a blog run by Tosin Ajibade, and became viral over the weekend.
In the piece, one Chinenye Okoye, mother of the JSS 2 pupil said to have been abused, claimed that the girl was molested by a drunken Oshifala when she left her hostel to relieve herself at night. The story also claimed that, Oshifala, who teaches Integrated Science, was being protected by one of the vice principals, Mrs Kayode, who allegedly told Chinenye that he was untouchable.
During Monday’s protest, the pupils, workers and Chairman, Parents/Teachers Association, Mrs Beatrice Akhetuamen, denied the claims.
As a result of the agitation, the Biology paper for the Southwest Zonal Mock examination organised in preparation for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) was delayed. The girls, bore placards that read: “No Mother, No child, No Case!”, “Haters at work, free Mr Seni”, “No Seni, no A’s”, “He didn’t do it,” “It is a set up”, as they chanted “No Seni, no biology”.
All efforts by the teachers to send them back failed as they started chanting “open the gate.” They eventually went back to write their examination after a call made by a director in the Ministry, referred to as Mrs. Madueke, who asked to speak with the Head Girl, Angel Tony-Ativie, to prevail on her classmates to end the protest.
In an interview, Angel said the claims were baseless.
“This is a very untrue allegation against our Biology teacher; because most of the facts are baseless. Mr Oshifala does not live in the boarding house; he is not an Integrated Science teacher; he teachers biology to SS1-SS3. I have known him for six years; he has taught me for three years. He is our chief maintenance officer so the only time he is able to move to the boarding house, with the permission of the principal, is to check if the facilities are functioning. He leaves the boarding house around 9 or 10pm.
Another pupil, Unoma Omenyi, President of the Students’ Representative Council, said the story was a maliciously generated to create bad publicity for the school.
“This is our teacher; this is someone that taught us for three good years. We have known this man since JSS1 and we know he is not capable of something like this. Every Saturday we have Biology lessons; this is why Queen’s College exists because we can proudly say we can write Biology and have A1 in WAEC.
“I believe this is a publicity stunt to bring down the image of the school and the image of our respected teachers. I just want to say they should leave our school and our teacher alone,” she said.
Unoma added that it was unfair to crucify Oshifala when those accusing him have failed to come forward.
“There is no girl; there is no evidence against him. Because nobody has come up to say, ‘oh, I was raped’, ‘oh, I was molested.’ If there is no girl, there is no mother, then why are we accusing a man falsely when there is no evidence against him?,” she asked.
On her part, the PTA Chairman, Mrs. Akhetuamen, said Oshifala may have been targeted because of his track record of working successfully with many principals of the school.
She also said she made repeated calls to the number said to be owned by Chinenye but got no response. However, when she used the App, TrueCaller, the number was identified to be owned by someone called Sola Salisu.
However, when some journalists called the number, one woman, who said her name was Tope, picked the call (she was identified by TrueCaller on another phone as “Toyin Flask”). She said she had no relationship with Queen’s College and had no daughter studying there.
Mrs. Akhetuamen said a committee has been set up to investigate the issue. She declined claims that the PTA or the college management was not responsive.
She said: “The attention of the Parents Teachers Association has been drawn to online reports of sexual harassment said to have taken place at Queens College, Yaba, Lagos. Upon hearing the reports, the school authorities swung into action even though we are yet to receive any official report, oral or written from any parent or student to that effect,” she said.
