Tension In Enugu School As Youths Threaten To Kidnap, Rape Female Students

Over 2000 students of two female secondary ‎schools in Enugu State, Wednesday, took to the streets, protesting alleged threat to kidnap and rape them by Umakashi youths, a community in Nsukka Local Government Area of the State.

The schools involved are St Cypril Secondary School and St Cypril Special Science School, both in Nsukka.

Both schools belong to the Anglican Diocese of Nsukka.

DAILY POST reports that over 200 priests joined the students during the protest in solidarity.

Speaking on the matter, the Anglican Bishop of Nsukka, Rt Rev Aloysius Agbo, condemned the action of the youths, who he said had already destroyed the perimeter fence in the schools.

He said youths from Umakashi numbering about 500 had earlier on March 11, armed with dangerous weapons, invaded the school compound, destroying the school fence and threatening to kidnap female students in the hostel.

The youths were allegedly led by their president, Mr Samuel Asadu.

“On that fateful day, youths from Umakashi, the host community numbering about 500 invaded the school compound with dangerous weapons and surrounded the school.

“Some went to the girls’ hostels threatening to kidnap them as a bargaining power for us to vacate the land.

“After pulling down the school fence, they entered the school compound and started mapping out land into plots and sharing it among themselves,” he said.

“We have gone to court on this trespass by the community but later agreed for dialogue and the matter was struck out on November 2016.

“This land was give to the church in 1956 by their forefathers and I wonder why some youths will wake up one day and trespass into land.

“My happiness is that the church has necessary documents of the land and urged elders of Umakashi to call their youths to order and remind them that they are fighting God and not church,” he added.

Agbo said the church had informed the state governor, commissioner for Education as well as the police as security of the schools were under threat, especially given the fact that the two schools are girls schools and that 95 per cent of students live in hostels.

Earlier in a separate interviews, the senior perfect of St Cypril Science Secondary School Miss Shalom Aneke and the senior perfect of St Cypril Girls Secondary School Miss Sandra Ugwu said the development had put fear on them as many students do not come for evening prep any longer owing to fear of being raped.

When contacted, the president of Umakashi youths denied breaking the fence of the school.

However, he accepted that youths from the area were there on March 11 to share part of the land belonging to the community which he claimed the church encroached upon.

“We did not break the school fence but we went there to share part of our land the church encroached upon,” he said.