A teacher with a private primary school in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State, Ibikunle Francis, has been arrested for allegedly defiling an eight-year-old primary four pupil of the school.
It was learnt that Mr Francis was the victim’s class teacher during the first term of the current academic session before he was transferred to another class.
It was gathered that the girl fell ill and was taken to a hospital where she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. After being probed by her mother, she opened up that Francis had sexually harassed her twice.
The father of the victim, Mr Leo, said, “She told us that the teacher touched her private parts and had sex with her in the classroom during closing time. She said she wanted to go and call her sister who is in a kindergarten class when the teacher called her into a classroom and took her to the back of the door.”
The Coordinator of a human rights group in Lagos, Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN), Mr Ebenezer Omijalile, told our correspondent that the case was reported at the Akodo Police Station on Thursday.
He said, “We are following up a case involving an eight-year-old girl who was defiled by her teacher, Mr Francis, on two different occasions. The perpetrator is in detention at the Akodo Police Station.”
Mr Omijalile noted that the matter was the second incidence of sexual assault reported at the station by the group last week.
He said, “We also got a report of a five-year-old residing at Oshoroko area who was sexually abused by her neighbour, a 49-year-old man identified as Baba Favour. The case was reported at the Akodo Police Station on Thursday and the suspect is currently in police custody.”
The police spokesman in the state, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the pupil’s defilement, adding that the case had been transferred to the gender unit at the police headquarters in Ikeja.
