Ten teenagers aged between the ages of twelve and sixteen were today March 15th, 2017 arrested in Lagos for causing public havoc; no thanks to their gangster ways. Several news reports indicate that the arrested teens are students of Apapa High School, Randle Junior School and United Christian Secondary School all in different parts of Lagos. The arrested have seen been taken to the Lagos State Social Welfare Centre for the necessary disciplinary/correctional processes to begin.
According to thenationonlineng.net, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police (Fatai Owoseni) noted that hooliganism among children is becoming a worrisome occurrence; especially in Lagos. The following are his words-
This is most disturbing because it has become a trend in the state for young ones to take to acts of criminality.
When they were arrested, they had cutlasses, axes and other tools for committing crimes. They first started engaging in fights in their schools before they took it to other schools.In this case, students from Randle Junior Secondary School left their school to support students of Apapa High School, who were involved in a rivalry clash with United Christian Secondary School, Apapa. At this point, we are interfacing with the parents. We appeal to parents and teachers in Lagos on the need to improve on the monitoring of their children and students.
Schools and homes are no longer building character but encouraging criminality. We appeal to school management boards and parents to do more with regards to parental care of their kids and wards. It is not enough to wave aside their age and ignore their acts of criminality. We need to do better when it comes to our kids. Within three weeks, we have had different cases of acts of criminalities involving children across the state.
