*Sanwo-Olu orders probe; Principal not acting alone – Fact-Checks
*Reveal how school teachers now under pressure to deliver votes
*As pupils taught how to tell parents who to vote
By KEMI KASUMU
The DEFENDER can authoritatively report that the information flying around on social media about a 10-year-old Epe, Lagos school student sent out for using poster of Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Dr. Peter Obi, to wrap her books is correct.
A slip of suspension signed by Principal of Odomola Junior Secondary School, Epe, Lagos State was stumbled over by this online newspaper on Tuesday March 14, 2023 but was not lifted for publication until our investigations concluded Wednesday morning of March 15.
Tips of our investigation was simply to confirm or dismiss the existence of the named school in Epe as to whether there was such incident and slip, all of which returned in the affirmative.
In the slip form titled, ‘EXIT’, completed and signed by the unnamed principal, it was stated that, “Miss Barinada Marvelous of JSS 2B is hereby permitted to go home to campaign for Peter Obi against the wish of Lagosians.”
We learnt that the information about the incident followed a complaint by parent of the little student, saying that their 10-year-old ward was sent out of the school for wrapping her books with Peter Obi’s poster.
A video had gone viral on social media in which a slip shown showing the sanction by principal of the school.
Sanwo-Olu reacts
In the meantime, Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Bababjide Sanwo-Olu, has reportedly ordered the state Ministry of Education to commence investigation into the complaint of a parent whose child was sent out of school for using the poster of one of the contestants in the last election to wrap his books.
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, who announced the measure on Wednesday, said the Governor had approved the recall of the principal, who will be asked to explain the incident.
“The Lagos State Government, the Ministry of Education and all its agencies will never instruct any school principal, personnel or teacher to act in such a manner,” Adefisayo stated.
However, the commissioner reassured the public that “the matter would be dealt with within the scope of our strict regulations as the reason for sending home the student is unacceptable – if true.”
Adefisayo also stated that another school principal at Odonguyan, who was caught on camera, as shared on social media, promoting her political choice to the students has been subjected to appropriate disciplinary measures.
“The Ministry promotes and runs a public school system devoid of politics and political insinuations.
“A thorough investigation of the matter will be carried out and anyone found culpable will be subjected to disciplinary measures as laid down in the civil service rules,” Adefisayo stated.
Principal not acting alone
In the course of our investigations, some serious materials were also discovered, which further showed that the principal may have only carried out a matching order from the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government of Lagos State, handed to Civil Servants to deliver their respective constituencies for Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency candidacy at the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
Our investigations revealed that, despite the pressure mounted on the civil servants and their forceful involvement in partisan politics, Tinubu lost in Lagos State to Peter Obi of the LP.
The same APC leadership, we were also told, has already issued a fresh order to the same civil servants to go and choose between delivering their respective constituencies for Governor Sanwo-Olu’s second through winning of the Saturday March 18, 2023 governorship and state house of assembly elections.
The DEFENDER reports cases where teachers teach children to say at home, “Daddy, Mummy, APC ni e dibo fun” meaning mobilising parents to vote for APC.
So, also, traditional rulers, market men and women and all agberos in the supposed Centre of Excellence that was once called the ‘City by the Lagoon’ by a poet, Odia Ofeimum, have also been given similar matching order to deliver their areas for Sanwo-Olu.
This tall order, described by our sources not only as unfortunate but also point out as establishment damaging, was fingered in the reason some traditional rulers on the Iru Land and Ikate-Elegushi Kingdom axis at Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state were seen involving themselves in physical attempt to undermine the electoral process leading to electoral violence and ballots snatching that occurred front of their respective palaces during the presidential and national assembly elections.
It will be recalled that earlier this Wednesday, one of the monarchs, Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi, the Elegushi of Ikate-Elegushi Kingdom, was reported to have again joined the once expressed fear revealing how the APC plans to rig the Saturday’s elections when he issued a ill-timed Oro Festival banning Nigerians in the area from enjoying their constitutionally guaranteed free movement between the hours of 12:00am and 5:00am beginning from Wednesday 15 through Friday 17 March, 2023 under the guise of occultism, which details could only be well understood by the king and his co-planners.
But, according to The DEFENDER report, the attempt was swiftly rejected as residents vowed to defile the Oro Festival in a way that fear of possible communal conflicts had spread with calls running to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose interest they said the Elegushi and his co-travellers were protecting, Governor of Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Oba of Lagos Babatunde Akinolu, to reign on the monarch or admit responsibility for the consequences.
They said it was within their constitutional rights to move around at any time and that they could not allow themselves to be caged three days to elections when vigil is being kept by all to ensure that agents of electoral malpractices, “who usually start three days to elections”, are not allow to achieve their aim of mid-night election rigging as planned.
