Politics
THE Management of the Special Education Center for the Deaf and Mentally retarded, Aba has appealed to Abia Government to save the centre from the menace of hoodlums.
The Principal of the School, Mrs Ijeoma Madubuko, made the appeal on Thursday, while briefing newsmen on the security challenges confronting the school.
Madubuko, who conducted newsmen round the school premises, said that the management could no longer bear the attacks by the hoodlums.
According to her, the marauders often vandalise office furniture and also cart away office equipment.
She also alleged that the criminals had confiscated a part of the school premises, “where they sexually harass our female students”.
Madubuko lamented that the centre had at least 144 pupils, “who could not further their studies after their primary education because of the absence of a Special Secondary School in the area”.
She said that the establishment of a skills acquisition centre, secondary school with boarding facility would help to improve the pupils’ lives and preserve the institution.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that aside from the centre, which is located on Azikiwe Road, many other public primary and secondary schools in the commercial town also suffer similar attacks by miscreants and criminal elements.
They have converted many of the schools to hard drug joints and hideouts with little or no resistance from the school authorities, who seemed helpless.
Madubuko said: “The security here is nothing to write home about.
“If you go close to that place, you will see some of them taking hard drugs, smoking marijuana and indulging in other unprintable things.
“Whenever we are teaching, we see them smoking marijuana, taking all manner of drugs and defecating into our source of water with reckless abandon.
“Due to our powerlessness, we often plead with them to stop so that our children will not see them and begin to emulate such habits.
“But some of them would challenge us for daring to say so.”
Madubuko further alleged that the hoodlums usually break into the staff offices, steal laptops and other valuables and also defecate anywhere they like on the premises.
A teacher at the centre, Mrs Jane Onunwa, said that the school had intelligent and creative pupils, who were prepared to contribute their own little quote to the development of society, if given the necesaary support.
She regretted that they were exposed to serious danger, including accidents, having to travel long distances to the school daily.
“Some of us come to school everyday from places like Isiala Ngwa, Mgboko and Onitcha Ngwa in Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA) of the state,” Onunwa said.
A parent, Mr Ndubueze Eleke, who said that he usually brought his son to school daily from Owerri-Aba in Ugwunagbo LGA, thanked the school for providing adequate care for pupils of the centre.
They, therefore, appealed to Gov. Alex Otti to come to their aid by providing boarding facility and perimeter fencing round the school to enhance security at the centre. (NAN)
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December 1, 2023 @ 5:17 GMT|
Tags: Ijeoma Madubuko
