Parents and guardians of students of Kenneth Dike Memorial Secondary School, Awka, Anambra State, yesterday stormed the premises of the Anambra government house to protest what they termed government's silence over a recent shooting incident in the school that left 13 students injured..
On June 21 this year, gunmen suspected to have been hired by a land speculator involved in a land dispute with the school, opened fire at students of the school, moments after the students had pulled down the walls of the encroaching building. The attack sent 13 students to the hospital with varying degree of injuries.
The attack came barely six days after an attempt to abduct the school principal was foiled when the students pursued the kidnappers and drew the attention of the police. One of the kidnappers was arrested by the police.
Since the shooting, the school had been unceremoniously vacated by both students and teachers, even with examinations close at hand.
Worried by this development, parents of the students decided to take their case to the state government.
The chairman of the Parents-Teachers-Association, Innocent Anyaso, told NEXT that they were unhappy with government's silence, which he described as unusual.
He said the students had earlier trooped to government house to see the governor but were told he had travelled, a development that he said necessitated the visit of the parents.
Later, while channelling their grievances to Chuks Iloegbunam, representative of the government, the protesters requested the government to, among other things, fence the school; provide adequate security; help in offsetting the bill of the hospitalised students, and make the police to mount a checkpoint there..
Peaceful protest
Mr. Iloegbunam commended the parents on their peaceful disposition, as well as the role their children played in foiling the kidnap attempt on the principal. He restated government's commitment to the issue of security, and cited the recent resolution of south east governors to clamp down on kidnappers in the region.
He also noted that as part of the state government's commitment to the safety of the citizenry, each of the communities in the state had recently been given a N500, 000 security vote.
He recalled that the government had also mandated town union leaders to take care of security in their domains or risk being removed.
Mr. Iloegbunam promised to channel their case to the state governor, Peter Obi, once he returned from his trip.
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