SUBEB members, Hon Saka Yusuf Ogunleye and Princess Ademulegun Brown inspecting one of the vandalised primary schools in Akure, while monitoring the resumption of Ondo State primary schools pupils for the new academic session on Monday
- SUBEB invites police, security agents to wade in, stop further looting
- Appeals to Deji of Akure to intervene
By Banji Ayoola
Primary school pupils across Ondo State’s 18 Local Government Areas resume the new academic session on Monday amid disturbing reports of vandalisation of some of the schools by miscreants.
In fact, the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, which supervises the schools, has called on security agents to wade into reported mass vandalisation of primary schools properties especially in Akure metroplis, the state capital.
In a statement by the board’s Head of Information, Bisi Agboola, the board called on the police and other security agents to promptly wade in to forestall further looting.
Decrying the incident, the chairman of the board, Rt Hon Afolabi Olabimtan, described the unsettling development as embarrassing as he called on security agents to move in with a view to probing the incident, arresting and prosecuting the vandals as well as curbing the crime.
He spoke through a member of the board, Hon Saka Yusuf Ogunleye, who had led another member of the board, Princess Ademulegun Brown, to inspect the resumption in Akure and Owo on behalf of the chairman.
Ogunleye who spoke after monitoring the resumption of pupils for the new session, lamented the serious damage done to many primary schools which the state government had renovated to raise the standard of education in the state.
Describing the ugly trend as an act of sabotage against underage pupils, Ogunleye pointed accusing fingers at scavengers who roam streets to collect iron wastes.
Princess Ademulegun Brown and Ogunleye were also at Saint Francis Mega Primary School, Owaluwa and Community Primary School, Idashen in Owo.
Other schools visited include St. Finbarr’s Primary School; St Peter’s Demonstration Primary School; St Theresa; St David; and Medayese Memorial Primary School, all in Akure.
Pupils were met clearing their surroundings in preparation for academic work.
But according to Agboola: “It was however disheartening to see that almost all the schools visited in Akure metropolis by the team suffered one devastating hazard or the other.
“At St Finbarr’s Primary School located in the heart of the state capital, the surrounding was overgrown with bush which Hon Ogunleye described as an eye-sore. He instructed that the bush be cleared in the next 72 hours as the place can harbour miscreants and pose risks to pupils and other staff.
“The story was the same at the St. David Primary School where Hon Ogunleye instructed the Headmistress, Mrs Feyisola Otetubi to ensure the clearing of the surrounding bush before Friday.
“At Medayese Memorial Primary School, Hon Ogunleye heard from the residents around the school of how miscreants use the classrooms as their hiding abode to perpetrate crimes. The Headmistress, Mrs. Dakoru Serah gave a vivid account of how the miscreants used to confront them during school hours.
“The account of St.Martins Primary School was worse, as about seven classrooms’ entrance doors and several windows constructed with iron, were forcefully removed and carted away.
“Hon Ogunleye therefore appealed to His Majesty, the Deji of Akure, the Akure indigenes in Diaspora, Akure community leaders, PTA and all well meaning Akure residents to rise to stem the ugly incident and safe the education of the underage.”
