Eight students arrested In Ibadan for roaming during school hours

Eight students of secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo state, were arrested on Tuesday, for roaming the streets during official school hours.

Those arrested by the patrol team led by Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Community Relations, Mr Abidemi Siyanbade included students of Methodist Grammar School, Bodija; Bishop Onabanjo Memorial Grammar School, Bodija and St Luke Grammar School, Molete.

Siyanbade who stated that the clampdown on students who wandered during school hours would be more regular, listed Community Grammar School, Osungbade and Ibadan Grammar School among schools whose students were notorious for truancy.

The eight students were subsequently taken to Oyo State Social Development Centre, Samonda for counselling.

He added that the parents and principals of the arrested students had also been invited to the Social Development Centre for appropriate counselling.

He also pointed out that the just inaugurated School Governing Boards (SGBs) would also help the resolve to stem acts that constituted indiscipline among students.

“Imagine our students being tagged ‘Olu-Igbo’ because they are always in the bush when others are in class. You can see that the communities support the efforts of the government and I can assure them that we will achieve greater successes from the exercise. We are acting on the directive of Governor Abiola Ajimobi to clampdown on truancy in the state,” Siyanbade said.

Also, a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the governor on Community Relations, Mrs Adekemi Opatunde, stated that the exercise was to engender discipline in students.

She urged teachers to desist from the habit of sending students on errand when they were meant to be in class.

A cross section of residents of areas lamented that the students of the fingered schools were wont to fighting and smoking hemp.

Some residents of Osungbade and Molete areas called on the state government to intensify efforts to stem truancy and wayward attitude of students.

A trader, Mrs Elizabeth Onakomaiya, decried that it had become a norm for the students to roam the streets during school hours. Especially, she bemoaned that some of the students had virtually turned miscreants, disrupting the peace of communities.