Ogona Anita
The Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women & Children, has hailed the remand of a 29 year old female Class Teacher, Deborah Adaeze Oko over the alleged defilement of a 4 year old pupil at Sapphire G International School, Rumuepirikom, Port Harcourt by a Port Harcourt Magistrate Court.
The Team which frowned at the rising number of reported cases of school violence including sexual exploitation and abuse in schools urged parents to always be vigilant and ensure regular communication and check on their children.
Tombari Dumka-Kote, Coordinator, Rivers State Response Team on Violence Against Women & Children, stated this while speaking to newsmen, after the suspect was remanded by the family court today.
Dumka-Kote who lamented that school administrators and managers seem not to have learnt any lesson from previous incidents, said it exposes the fact that such schools are unsafe spaces for children and should be shutdown.
According to him, other cases of how a school minder, and an elderly pupil of 9 had fingered and defiled pupils at ages 2, and 4, at Bethlehemite Convenant Child International Montessori School, Rumuepirikom; and Bright International School, Agip Estate, Port Harcourt respectively, were still pending with the Police , and called on the Rivers State Commissioner of Police to order the transfer of the case files to his office for proper investigation and prosecution of the suspects involved.
The Response Team Coordinator while urging the pupils to always report incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse to trusted persons around them, said his Team will be working with the State Ministry of Education, to ensure that schools that are unsafe for children shall be shutdown.
Dumka-Kote also regretted that negligent private school owners and managers, rather than seeking means to addressing challenges faced by traumatized children survivors of violence in their schools, have taken to cheap blackmail and intimidation of the parents/guardians which will not be condoled and remain unacceptable.
‘Some schools have become torture centers for children. What we are saying is that people who lack character and are not friendly with child protection protocols must not be allowed to own or run schools in Rivers State. The responsibility is also on parents to ensure they do their fact checks to be sure their children and wards are not handed to abusers, molesters and traffickers in the name of school enrollment.’
All the schools with incidents and cases of abuse of children shall surely be investigated.
He warned school owners in whose school children are facing abuse, hinting that the Team will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that justice is upheld in the matter.
The presiding Chief Magistrate ordered for an amendment in the charge and remand of the School Teacher in custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service. The matter was adjourned to Monday January 26, 2026.
Meanwhile, the Proprietress and Management Sapphire G International School, Rumuepirikom, Port Harcourt are yet to show any form of concern about the incident.
Mother of the affected child ( name withheld), said since she first reported the incident to the Police, she and her family members have been receiving threats from family of the suspect and the school Proprietress.
‘No one from the school is asking me of the health and emotional stability of my little girl’, she lamented.
29 year old Deborah Adaeze Oko, a class Teacher, is alleged to have fingered and sexually abused a 4year old pupil in her class, an offence punishable under the laws of Rivers State, and Nigeria.
Queeneth Igbara
(Communication/Public Enlightenment officer)
