The Federal Government College (FGC), Ijanikin in Lagos has suspended all students involved in alleged sex romps in a hotel.
Toun Aderele, the global president of FGC old students association, disclosed this to Bellnewsonline.com on Thursday.
FGC has been in the news since some of its students were caught with their female counterparts in a hotel.
The students — numbering about seven males and five females — were said to have jumped the school’s fence and stayed out of school for days.
Speaking with Bellnewsonline.com, Aderele confirmed that all the students who lodged in the hotel have been arrested and taken to the police station for further interrogation.
‘NO STUDENT WAS IMPREGNATED’
She, however, dismissed the claims that one of the students impregnated a classmate.
“There was no pregnancy, no student was pregnant as claimed. Yes, some of the students went to the hotel. What the principal does is to randomly give a roll call from time to time just to check the escapades of some of them, knowing fully well that incidents like this are bound to happen in any boarding school,” she said.
“So, when the recent roll call was done, the principal discovered that some students were not in the school. Immediately, they called the parents of the missing students to find out if they were at home, but their parents said they were not at home.
“So, the principal started pressuring friends of the missing students to get their whereabouts. Eventually, one of them gave in and revealed where they went to.
“So, the school management, together with their parents and operatives of Ijanikin police station, went to the hotel, arrested all the students that lodged there, and took them to the police station for further interrogation.”
INDEFINITE SUSPENSION
Aderele said the students were suspended indefinitely by the school-based management committee (SBMC), the school’s highest decision-making body following recommendations of the disciplinary committee.
“Being a federal government college (FGC), there are guidelines that the school must follow. So, according to the guideline, the students were suspended indefinitely by the SBMC from the school after the incident,” she added.
“The SBMC involves all stakeholders including the monarch of Ijanikin, the divisional police officer of Ijanikin police station, the minister of education, the principal and vice-principal, PTA chairman, local government education representative, and the old students association global president.
“We have meetings from time to time on issues affecting the school. But in situations like this, emergency meetings are held. So, the students were arraigned before the school’s disciplinary committee and then the SBMC met to look at the recommendation of the disciplinary committee.
“In our system, indefinite suspension is almost the same as expulsion. So, the students were indefinitely suspended immediately. That is the situation of things.
“All other allegations are not true. The claim that the ages of the students were between 14 and 17 is not true. The affected students are between 17 and 18 years of age. They are all SS3 students.”
‘PARENTS ARE THE PROBLEM’
Aderele said the school management is doing its best to fight indiscipline.
She, however, blamed some parents for not giving the management the needed support.
“The school cannot do everything, so if it is not fair when they condemn the school. The principal is working within certain guidelines. Something happened about a year or two ago and the students were suspended,” she said.
“The students were about two, when one of the parents showed up, she started screaming that her child did not steal when she should be ashamed of what her child did. So, parents are not helping and that’s unfortunate.”