A female student of Community Secondary School, Okpitumo, in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, has allegedly been brutalized, punished, and humiliated by the school’s Senior Prefect for refusing to kneel before him.
The incident has triggered widespread outrage, prompting human rights lawyer and child rights advocate, Ikechukwu Obasi, to demand an immediate investigation by the Ebonyi State Ministry of Education and the Secondary Education Board (SEB).
Describing the assault as “barbaric and dehumanising,” Obasi insisted in a statement on Friday that prefectship must never be weaponized to abuse junior students, noting that disciplinary authority belongs strictly to teachers and school management.
“The alleged act constitutes a clear case of assault, bullying, and inappropriate exercise of power,” Obasi said, “No student, under any guise of seniority or prefectship, has the legal right to punish, assault or dehumanise another student.”
The lawyer highlighted that the incident violates the Child Rights Act 2003, as domesticated in Ebonyi State, which protects children from physical, mental, and emotional abuse, torture, and degrading treatment.
“A school is meant to be a safe learning environment, not a hub of bullying wherein seniority is weaponised to instil fear and trauma in younger students,” he stressed, adding that “no child should suffer humiliation for refusing to submit to an unlawful order.”
Beyond demanding sanctions for anyone found culpable, Obasi urged the school management to provide immediate counseling for the victim and called on state authorities, the National Human Rights Commission, and civil society organizations to enforce strict anti-bullying policies across schools.
