According to a report by Mrs. Ayodeji Orojo, the head teacher of
Top-Teez Nursery and Primary School, Ojodu, Ifo, has yet to recover from
the injuries she sustained after she was allegedly beaten up by some
policemen attached to the Ojodu Abiodun Police Division, Ogun State.
Orojo, who is in her 40s, was allegedly assaulted together with the
school’s female receptionist, as the policemen pushed their way to
arrest a 10-year-old Basic 5 pupil at the school.
The police were said to have got information that the pupil,
identified as David, knew the man who stole a stabiliser belonging to
the Divisional Police Officer.
The head teacher told Punch Metro that the incident happened around
10am on Friday, adding that she had yet to resume work since the attack
because she was on medication.
She said, “Around 10am on Friday, January 26, 2018, I was in my
office when I heard the lady who attends to visitors at the gate
screaming my name. She sounded terrified.
“As I got to the doorstep of my office, I sighted two hefty
men. They were in mufti. I walked straight to them and said, ‘Hello
sirs, how may we help you? I am the head teacher here. Who are you and
who do you want to see?’
“One of them retorted, ‘Madam, if you don’t get out of my way, I
will slap you now.’ That was when I knew they were in the school to
cause trouble. Because they were not in uniform and they did not look
like any of my parents, I decided to stand my ground.
“I told them that they would not go upstairs because classes
were on. I told them that if they wanted to see anyone, they should tell
me and I would bring the person downstairs. The man said I was trying
his patience.
“I told him, ‘Sir, if you cannot tell me why you are here and
who you are, you cannot go upstairs. This is a school.’ He elbowed me on
the chest and pushed me out of the way.”
She explained that the two policemen ordered the pupil’s sister,
whom they had earlier arrested, to lead them to David’s classroom.
Orojo said the policemen barged into the classes, shouting, ‘Where is
the criminal?’, as terrified pupils cried, which caused commotion in the
school.
“They came downstairs with the boy. To have evidence, I tried
to take some pictures. They wanted to take my phone from me, but I
resisted them. They beat me up,” she added.
A worker at the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
six policemen invaded the school’s premises, adding that while two were
in plainclothes, two uniformed men stood at the main gate. Two others,
who wore T-shirts, reportedly mounted the school’s second gate.
“I was going to buy food for the children when I saw the
policemen. They said they were in school to see a child. I called the
woman who mounted the gate to assist them in meeting the head teacher.
“An argument ensued between them and the woman. They pushed the
two of us away and forced the gate open. The woman sustained injuries
in the hand. They were saying, ‘If you allow the criminal to go, we are
going to deal with all of you’.
“While leaving, one of them held the head teacher’s hands, and
the second man held her by her two legs. They carried her, hit her on
the floor and gave her fist blows,” she added.
Punch Metro reports that the victim was taken to a medical centre
in the community, but she was referred to the General Hospital, Ijaiye.
The doctors were, however, said to have rejected her, demanding a police report or the presence of a policeman.
“I have never heard such a thing in my life that if policemen
beat up a person, the person will need a police report to get treatment.
The unfortunate thing is that those who beat her up came from Ojodu
Abiodun division, which is the nearest police station to the school. So,
where are we going to report?
“I begged them to at least give her some form of treatment
because she cannot hold herself together. She is over 40 and for a
person of such age to be brutalised is unimaginable. But they refused,
saying without a police report, they cannot do anything,” a top management official of the school, who did not want to be named, said.
Orojo said she was disappointed because she was a registered member of the hospital.
It was learnt that she was taken to her house and was placed on self medication.
It was gathered that the victim had already resigned from the school due to the incident.
David’s mother, Elizabeth Emeka, said she was away when her son was arrested, adding that she paid N19,000 for his bail.
“He saw a boy he knows in the area with a stabiliser which
belonged to the DPO. The boy told him to assist him to carry the
stabiliser and he helped him without knowing the owner.
“He was kept in the police station from morning till 10pm. The
policemen first asked me to pay N9,000 and that I should come to take
him on bail at 6pm. When I got there by that time, they said they needed
additional N10,000 and I should return by 10pm. That was when he was
released,” she said.
The Chief Medical Director of General Hospital, Ijaiye, Dr Kayode
Oladehinde, said he was not aware of the head teacher’s rejection.
He said, “The policy of this hospital is that if anybody is
injured, they are treated; even if they are brought by passersby. As I
speak to you, we currently have a gunshot injury patient and he is being
treated. The best we do is to call the police while such treatments are
on. We don’t demand police report from patients, rather, we write to
the police. I doubt it can ever happen.”
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Tunde Ipaye, said the
hospital attended to over 12,000 patients every month, wondering how it
could cope if it demanded police reports from patients.
The state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Modupe Mujota, said she
was not aware of the incident and promised to react after getting
details.
She had yet to do so despite getting the details through a text message from our correspondent.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in his
reaction, recalled that the police station was attacked by some
hoodlums recently during which some valuables were stolen.
He said the police got information that a stabiliser, which was among the stolen items, was found in the pupil’s compound.
He said further investigation showed that the suspect was in school.
“The policemen thought the suspect was a teacher at the school,
but on getting there, they discovered that it was a pupil. The mistake
the woman made was that while this was on, she was filming the officers.
But she was not touched. The proprietress of the school also informed
me that the matter has been settled as the DPO has apologised for the
mix-up,” he added.