Men
of the Department of State Services, Cross River State Command have
invaded a Federal Government Girls College and flogged the teachers in
front of their students.
DSS officials (File photo)
Six teachers at the Federal Government Girls College in Calabar on
Thursday were allegedly beaten in the presence of pupils by operatives
of the Department of State Services, Cross River State Command.
According to Punch, it was gathered that the armed security
officials stormed the school premises at about 10am on the invitation of
a female DSS official who had come to beat up a teacher for flogging
her daughter.
One of the teachers, Mr. Owai Owai, said he was flogged in front of his pupils by the DSS woman and her husband.
Other teachers, who claimed to have been beaten up when the school
later became flooded with DSS officials, identified themselves simply as
Ndarake, Inyang, Udoh, Agba, Njor and the college’s Chief Security
Officer, John Ikpeme.
A security official, identified as James, said the DSS officials
who stormed the school in three vehicles, shot repeatedly into the air
before they forcefully gained entrance.
The state Director of DSS, Mr. Fubara Duke denied the incident and
said the matter was a case of mistaken identity. However, according to
Punch, the school gate had bullet holes, while some spent shells were
seen on the floor.
Owai, who teaches Civic Education in the senior class, said trouble
started when he flogged some pupils for failing to sweep their
classroom.
He said, “I was about to teach when I noticed some junior
pupils sweeping the classroom of the senior pupils. I learnt that the
senior pupils had imposed it on them. It was a wrong precedent because
all the pupils had been told to sweep their respective classes.
“I punished the senior pupils who ordered the junior ones to
sweep. I gave each of them two strokes of the cane on their palm and
one of them challenged me for flogging her. Before I knew what was
happening, she telephoned her mother, whom I later learnt was a DSS
official. The mother came to the school with her husband and they
started beating me.
“They used my own cane to flog me in the presence of the
pupils. My fellow teachers came in to stop them, but they were rebuffed.
Later, the DSS woman called her colleagues for reinforcement and that
was how the school became flooded with DSS officials. They started
beating teachers who ran into them.”
Speaking on the incident, another teacher Amos Princewill, said the
DSS officials took away two mobile phones, a binocular and N80,000
belonging to his colleagues who were molested.
But DSS Director, Duke, said, “It was not true that they used
guns. What happened was that there was a mistaken identity somewhere.
Our people responded to a call from them and on getting there, a group
of hoodlums that had earlier gone there took to their heels.
“Meanwhile, a parent had gone to the school to complain that
her daughter was beaten up by a teacher. She (the parent) was mistaken
to be among the hoodlums and some teachers from the school pounced on
her. They even attacked a DSS official. I have complained to the school
authorities to take administrative action against what they did to a
member of my staff.”
The teachers want the government to investigate the matter and
bring those who perpetuated such evil on innocent citizens to book.
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