Chaotic scenes in Lagos as suspected hoodlums storms popular private school, chase pupils

Lagos, Ipaja – An emerging report has confirmed that at least 40 suspected hoodlums invaded the Shalom Group of Schools, Baruwa, Ipaja, Lagos State.

The Punch newspaper reported that pupils and management of the school were barred from entering after it was surrounded by these suspected hoodlums.

Confirming the incident on Monday, January 30, the proprietress of the school, Mrs Adedayo Odeka stated that the hoodlums barricaded the school under the guise of Omo-Onile a Yoruba word termed as ”Land Owners” while some refer to them as land-grabbers.

While recounting the incident Mrs Odeka disclosed that the stream of hoodlums who invaded her school was led by one Kaka.

She said:

“He claimed that they won a court judgement to take possession of our land. I told him to show me the judgement, as I was not aware of any court case let alone judgment but he refused.”

She revealed that the land was acquired lawfully from the federal government as far back as 1992 and the school was built on it.

The proprietress said:

“This land, we have been occupying it for 30 years; students have been graduating year in, year out.

“The land is a Federal Government allocation; we don’t have any dealings with Omo Onile; we have all our documents.”

A further account of the invasion confirmed that the incident ensued on Saturday, January 28 and some of the properties of the school were vandalised by the Kaka-led hoodlums.

It was gathered that the incident forced boarding students to evacuate their various hostels during the attack.

Mrs Odeka said the incident was been reported to the Lagos state police command, Ipaja division and upon getting there they were unable restore normalcy as they continued to terrorise the school premises.

Given another account of the incident, Mr Micheal Yakubu, a security guard on duty post recounted that Kaka and his gang launched the invasion at about 6 am on Saturday.

He said:

“They broke the wall and removed the two main gates to gain access, claiming that the land belonged to them.

“They brought in sand and blocks and started digging and erecting structures on the school field. They blocked the two entrances with blocks, put a small gate and locked it.”

Similarly, Mrs Osagie Igebo, a parent whose child is a pupil in the school decried that the incident was unfortunate while noting that disputes should be settled with civility and not chaos.

Miss Success Afolayan, an SS2 student of the school said:

“This is going to affect our education, as we do not know when it will be resolved.”