“In view of the allegations, we are committed to ensuring that adequate medical and psychosocial support is provided. This is to reassure members of the public of the state government’s commitment to safety and child protection, especially in ensuring that all child-centred institutions within the state formulate and implement policies and systems that are compliant with the Executive Order (NO.EO/AAO8 of 2016), Lagos State Safeguarding and Child  Protection Programme.

“We also use this medium to remind the general public of the implications pertaining to engaging in any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child, commits an offence and is liable to a custodial sentence of 14 years. This includes producing, distributing, receiving and possessing an image of child pornography.

“In the meantime, all Chrisland schools within Lagos State are hereby closed, pending further investigations,” the statement said in part.

Reacting, the state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, in a statement released by the command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, also said the command had commenced an investigation into the matter.

“The command has commenced investigations into the matter with a view to establishing the identities of the players in the video, the true incident in the video, the geographical location of the incident, the alleged threat to life against a student of the school and circumstances surrounding the alleged repeated pregnancy tests conducted on a student without parental consent.

“The command is equally taking cognizance of the cybercrime angle to the whole episode and would not hesitate to enlist the support of the Interpol should the need arise. For a holistic and unbiased investigation, the command shall be working with relevant ministries, departments, agencies and non-governmental organisations.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, in a statement, said, “The decision of the Lagos State Government to close down the school is commendable.  A thorough and speedy investigation of the immoral act ought to be carried out with a view to sanctioning the teachers who failed to provide effective supervision of the pupils during the trip to the United Arab Emirates.

“In particular, the allegation of the mother that her daughter was subjected to pregnancy tests without parental consent should be referred to the police for investigation and possible prosecution,” he added.

In his reaction to the incident, a senior lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, condemned the parents, school management, government, and Nigerians for sharing the sexually explicit content online.

He said, “Parents have a responsibility in providing moral education for their children because children are susceptible to all sorts of influences by the media, including the broadcast media, radio and films that they watch at home. So, parents have the responsibility to nurture their children before they hand them over to schools.

“As for the school, this is not the first time things like this would be happening in Chrisland; the other time, a teacher was said to have raped and it resulted in a trial and it became topical for a long time. And that calls to question the responsibility of the management of Chrisland.

“What is the supervisory mechanism that exists in that school particularly when we are talking about young children that are prone to abuse not only by paedophile teachers but by fellow students. If students are released to their teachers and handlers to embark on a foreign trip, they have a bigger duty to supervise them 24-hour and also keep a vigil on them while they are asleep.

“But with what happened, they failed woefully in their duty to ensure that the children did not fall into any moral harm. And the fact that they allegedly attempted to cover it up aggravated that failure, and in the process of the cover-up, they violated the right of the child when they took the child to allegedly conduct a pregnancy test without the knowledge of the parents.”

PUNCH