Wednesday 9 January 2013

UPDATE: Virginity test: Ogun sets up review panel...


Entrance of the school. Inset, Aladeojobi
Entrance of the school. Inset, Aladeojobi...

Hello Friends!

The Ogun State Government has set up a team of top civil servants to review the report submitted on Monday by the panel that investigated the alleged conduct of virginity test on some pupils by the principal of Ajuwon Senior High School, Ajuwon.

Speaking to our correspondent on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela, confirmed that the panel had turned in its report.

He added that the review panel was in line with “due process.”

Odubela said, “The Ogun State Government has received the report of the panel set up to investigate the alleged conduct of virginity test on pupils of Ajuwon Senior High School by their principal, Rev. Olufunke Aladeojobi, and another member of staff.

“I have looked through the contents of the report and I can confidently say that the work done by the panel was thorough and we are satisfied with it.

“But the state government has gone a step further by setting up a three-man team to review the recommendations made by the probe panel. The team comprises two permanent secretaries and a director in the ministry.”

The members of the review panel are, a Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Ambaliu Ishola, Permanent Secretary, Ogun State Teaching Service Commission; Mr. Ayodele Koleade, and Mr. Mutiu Maboreje, a director in the ministry.

Asked if the review panel was not an indirect way of passing a vote of no confidence on the report, Odubela said, “Setting up the review panel is in line with the adherence to internal mechanisms of due process and it is not in any way meant to discredit the report.”

He added, “In fact, I was impressed with the report as all the parents, pupils and all other parties involved in the incident were reached and given fair hearing and equal opportunity to express their grievances.”

He explained that the review team set up on Tuesday is expected to submit its report on Friday before a “higher authority” finally ratifies the recommendations.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the panel headed by the Zonal Education Officer of Abeokuta North Local Government Area, Mr. I.O. Adeniji, submitted the report to the ministry around 3pm on Monday.

It was gathered that four out of the five members of the panel made the formal presentation of the 27-page probe report to the commissioner at the state secretariat complex, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

The fifth member was said to have gone on terminal leave on completion of the probe.

Aladeojobi was said to have on December 10 invited a nurse to the school to carry out virginity test on a group of 10 pupils.
During the test, it was alleged that Aladeojobi, the school’s nurse, Mrs. M.B. Makinde, and another nurse whose name could not be ascertained dipped their fingers into the pupils’ private parts.

But the matter got out of hand when one of the pupils started bleeding after she had been ‘tested.’
Parents of the pupils later stormed the school in protest resulting in the invitation of policemen from Ajuwon Division.

On December 21, the Ogun State Police Command transferred the case from the police division to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, for “discrete investigation.”

Culled from The Punch Nigeria.

xoxo
Simply Cheska...

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