DSS officials allegedly beat up teachers for flogging a student

Some teachers of the Federal Government Girls' College, F.G.G.C., Calabar were beaten yesterday by people they claim to be officials of the Department of State Service, DSS. The DSS stormed the school following a report that a teacher had beaten a senior student who happens to be the daughter of a DSS operative.

The teacher, Mr. Owai Owai, revealed that the senior student had taken some junior students to sweep her class, something Owai had warned them against doing, so he decided to punish the entire class for going against his instructions barring them from forcing junior students to sweep their classroom.
As he began to flog the students, one of them grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, prompting him to flog her some more. The girl reportedly ran outside the class and made a call to her DSS official mother. Soon after, a woman and a man walked into the class, took the cane from Owai and began to flog him with it. His colleagues who came to his rescue were also attacked.

Owai escaped when he could and watched from a safe distance as the woman made calls, not long after, he said three vans drove into the school carrying more DSS official, Vanguard reported.
He said; “They jumped out of the vans and started shouting ‘where is the teacher’. The woman, who did not know I had escaped, mistakenly pointed at another teacher, Mr. Ndarake, and they went after him.

“One of them brought out a rifle, pointed it at Ndarake, while another shouted ‘shoot him’. But the man with the rifle fired into the air, grabbed Ndarake and tried to force him into one of the vans. Ndarake resisted. He wrestled him to the ground and began using the butt of his rifle on his head and neck.”

It was reported that the set of DSS officials who arrived later shot sporadically into the air and that any teacher who tried to film the incident on their phone was attacked and their device seized.
Mr. Mbeson Emmanuel, the Fine Arts teacher said: “Over six of us were attacked for trying to take pictures of the incident and I had my phone and binoculars confiscated and another teacher, Mrs Anne Agba, had her phone and N80,000, which was in her handbag, confiscated. She was severely manhandled."

He also revealed that the security man, James Asuquo, who tried to stop the van from leaving was also hit on the head and neck with the butt of their rifle. Afterward, they shot the lock on the gate and drove out. Asuquo has now been taken to the hospital due to the injuries sustained from the attack.

Reacting to the claims, Mr. Fubara Duke, the State Director of DSS, told Vanguard that the incident was a case of mistaken identity. He said that some hoodlums went to the school on Wednesday to beat a teacher for flogging a student. When they did not see the teacher they left and returned the next day. Duke said that when the teachers saw the DSS operative they began beating her and tore her clothes because they thought she was one of the hoodlums.

With regard to the gunshot claim, Duke said, “There were no gunshots and my men only went there on the invitation of the school authorities and the teachers mistook my personnel for hoodlums.

“They went there to sort out an issue, where the DSS operative’s daughter was beaten by a teacher, leaving her body with lacerations, but she was mistaken for one of the hoodlums, who went there to beat up a teacher on Wednesday.”

Duke has asked the school administration to fish out the teachers who attacked the DSS lady so that they can face the punishment for their actions.