• They can be expelled – Director
Rivers Police said their officers arrested two students at the Nkpolu Oroworukwo Community High School in Mile Diobu, Port Harcourt, for allegedly engaging in erotic acts in an isolated classroom within the school premises.
It was deduced that the two senior high school students were allegedly involved in the act, unaware that they were being videotaped by one of their classmates.
His classmate, who discreetly took the video of the erotic scene and then sent it to a fellow student via WhatsApp, which in turn caught the attention of some students.
Shortly after, the attention of the school management was brought to the attention of the situation, when a teacher stumbled across the video on the phone of one of the students to whom the video was transferred.
Our correspondent deduced that the school management invited the police from the Nkpolu Police Division headquarters in Mile, Port Harcourt, leading to the arrest of two students involved in the love triangle.
A male student who took the video and another of the same sex to whom the video was transferred were also detained.
A parent of one of the arrested students, who did not want his name published for fear of stigmatization, confirmed the incident to our reporter but declined to comment further.
When the school principal, Ms. Patience Nwachukwu, was contacted, she expressed sadness at the situation, saying that the affected students were a bad influence and such behavior could not be tolerated.
She said: “Those kids are a bad influence and we can’t stand for that. After now they will have to be expelled from school.
“I will still have to get to my boss to inform him and tell him the action I intend to take. But that is what I think is best, because if they go unpunished tomorrow others will join and nothing will happen.
State Police Command spokeswoman Grace Iringe-Koko could not be reached for comment as her mobile phone was not connecting at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, a rights group, the Center for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign, said it was informed of the incident by a parent of one of the arrested students.
However, the group’s national coordinator, Prince Wiro, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday, called for the students to be warned and released afterwards.
Wiro also said that the school must rise to the occasion by invoking internal mechanisms and imposing appropriate punishment on students.
He said: “The mother of one of the arrested students informed me about the incident on Wednesday night (November 30).
“I think it’s usually an issue that the school can handle through its internal disciplinary measures. But if the school management in its wisdom decides to hand them over to the police for injunctive relief, it is not out of the question.
“However, I would have expected the police to release all the students after warning them, rather than release some of the students and hold some, based on the information available to us.”