Five Lagos students arraigned for forcing themselves on schoolgirls

Five pupils of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, Lagos, accused of molesting some schoolgirls were on Thursday arraigned before an Igbosere magistrate’s court in the state.

Four of them had been arrested on May 6 after one Michale Matthew had reported on social media how two female pupils of Falomo Senior High School were molested by some male pupils.

The act is said to have become a yearly tradition.

According to PUNCH, the five defendants were arraigned on four counts of unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, gross indecency and wilful damage.

Although Fatai Owoseni, the state commissioner of police, had said on Wednesday that one of them was 18-years-and would be tried in an open court, the defendants were arraigned in a juvenile court on the grounds that they were “minors”.

According to the charge sheet, the teenage boys were said to have committed offences bordering on unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, gross indecency and wilful damage punishable under sections 412, 44(1), 134(B) and 35 of the Criminal Code, Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Olaitan Soetan, a prosecutor from the state directorate of public prosecutions, was the prosecuting counsel while Jamiu, a lawyer from the office of the public defender, ministry of justice, held brief for the accused.

The charges read in part: “That you, and others now at large, on May 4, 2017, on Norman Williams Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, in the Lagos magisterial district, did conspire among yourselves to commit misdemeanour to wit; unlawful assembly.

“That you, and others at large, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did commit act of gross indecency by forcing yourselves on a girl.

“That you on the same date, time, and place did unlawfully and wilfully damage a school skirt valued at N1,150, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 35 of the Criminal Code, Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

The defendants pleaded not guilty and were granted bail in the sum of N500,000 each with two sureties in like sum.

The case was adjourned till June 14 for further hearing.