Facts to Confirm that the Position of Mr. Ahisu Celestine of Otodo-Gbame Community is Fallacious, Tissues of Lies and Wicked.

Children’s International School Management wish to take this opportunity to put forward their comments and the facts regarding the inaccurate allegations being made against them. This is being done in order for the whole picture to be seen by those parties and persons who believe in fairness and equality, thus, a truly balanced and realistic viewpoint of events can be determined.

The school is shocked to say the least at the allegations of Mr. Ahisu Celestine, who claims to be the youth leader of Otodo-Gbame waterfront community Lekki, Lagos.

Referring to his statement in Sahara Reporters’ news of Wednesday the 16th of November 2016, the School has been left in utter bewilderment and denies any wrong doing at the same time knowing it is innocent of his allegations. The School has no territorial ambition so why would we want the Community displaced?

The fact remains that residents of Otodo-Gbame Community frequently clash and whenever these clashes happen, they are always bloody. Since the school relocated here, there have been no less than four skirmishes that led to injuries and death, in some cases.
During September 2016, there was a fracas wherein various dangerous weapons were used. From our position, we saw shanties burnt by rival factions.

We do not want to hold brief for the Police, but from our observation, the rival sections (warring factions) of the Community commenced torching each other’s properties, even during the last incident.

The school was as shocked as any other person who had seen smoke and flame spiraling into the sky from the community. The fire spread so fast, as the houses are made of bamboo and tarpaulin, that the school was the responsible party for summoning fire fighters who came but could not access the community owing to the ensuing chaos.

It is on record that the Commissioner of Police when he visited to assess the latest fracas, was surprised to see an edifice as big as ours in this Community. So, he instructed without recourse to us, the DPO Ilasan Police and the Area Commander to urgently post Policemen to our property. We did not ask for it. But, he saw the need and directed as such. The Policemen on the street had to park around our frontage because we are the last occupied property on the Street to Otodo-Gbame.

All school has ever wished for in this community are good wishes; we have carried out a couple of social responsibility initiatives, in which individuals from the community benefitted from.

The School, in conjunction with other Stakeholders in the neighbourhood, constructed a road worth N40m with the School footing the lion share of the bill. Presently, the School is solely constructing another N20m road in the neighbourhood. The residents of Otodo-[img][/img][img][/img]Gbame use this road and even pack their Tricycles and Cars on it.

Sometime last year, our Volunteer Club known as the VOLT Club organized a training on professional photography and how to exhibit finished work, leading to auctioning of the finished pieces of work. This was for select state secondary schools on the Island, of which children from Otodo Gbame community are indeed students. The exhibition, where students showcased their work, resulted in a fourteen-year-old student from that community receiving the highest auction price on the day. This was in addition to the cash award to these young people that followed days later.

Another example of the giving and good nature of the School is illustrated by a member of our staff who has personally carried out a food sharing exercise in this community. The same person took it upon herself to build and donate a house to a family in that community.
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With this level of support from the School, how can it be explained that the School would invite the police to forcibly enter, burn and destroy a community that the School actively assists and cares for? Or is Mr. Celestine insinuating that the Nigerian Police has become the private property of an individual that anyone can instruct to go and destroy the livelihood of members of the public?

Our School fully understands these persons and the predicament that they find themselves now in and our hearts go out to them. At the same time, we want to stress that Mr. Celestine’s libelous comments about us are absolutely baseless and we would advise him to refrain from making such accusations, for him to stop inciting people, who have lived peacefully side by side for four years, against each other and to establish facts before making any public commentary.

The School sincerely hopes all the people concerned find respite, peace and harmony.