College suspends principal over alleged sexual abuse in boarding facility

The principal of a college in Akwa Ibom where a junior student was said to have been sexually molested by some senior students has been suspended.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how a woman, Deborah Okezie, posted a video on Facebook where she cried out that her 11-year-old son, a JSS1 student of Deeper Life High School, Uyo, was sexually molested by his seniors when her son was switched from his hostel to another hostel filled with senior students.

She said her son was frequently starved and beaten up by the senior students.

“They will remove his boxer and push their legs and hands into his anus,” the woman said in the video which has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.

“Look at a child I sent to school, he came back with a broken anus,” she added.

Deeper Life High School, with 21 campuses across Nigeria, is owned by the pentecostal church, The Deeper Christian Life Ministry. The school has its headquarters in Lagos, South-west Nigeria.

The school management said in a statement on Monday that they were investigating the allegation.

“We want to assure the general public that investigations into the case have commenced and no culprit, whether staff or student, will be spared if found culpable. As an interim measure and to underscore the seriousness we attach to higher superintending values, the school principal has been suspended summarily even as further investigations continue,” the school said.

The school promised to make public the outcome of its investigations.

The Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has ordered an investigation into the allegation.