The principal of Baptist High School, Ejigbo, Osun State got more than he bargained for yesterday when some parents stormed the school and beat him to a pulp.
The incident, which occurred around 8.00 a.m, heightened tension in the town as many were apprehensive that the crisis might snowball into a clash between Christians and Muslims in the town.
According to sources, trouble started when the state government under its new education policy started schools’ merger which made students from Muslim schools where hijab is used to join schools with origin in Christianity.
With protests against use of hijab in ‘Christian schools’ threatening the smooth running of schools, especially Baptist High School, Ejigbo, Local Inspectors of Education in the area waded into the brewing crisis and advised students who cannot do without putting on hijab to join secular or Muslim schools where nobody cared about its use or not. Since they were not students of Baptist High school in the first place, LIEs thought they had found an easy solution to the crisis, not knowing they had just ignited a fire.
Parents of Muslim students that wanted their wards to continue using hijab insisted their children must remain in the school and use hijab, a stance the principal was said to have queried, as he wondered if they wanted peace in his school or not.
Although, some say the attackers of the principal are not parents but just some aggrieved Muslim youths in the town, others insist most of them were parents of the affected students.
A female student was said to have been sent home last week for allegedly using veil (hijab) while in the school, a development which infuriated some Muslims.
The parents were said to have stormed the school yesterday in guise of having a dialogue with the principal only to pounce on him, giving him the beating of his life.
The principal identified as Mr Layi Oguntola had to be rushed in an ambulance to a hospital in Osogbo, the Osun State capital to save his life.
Similar incidents had recently occurred at the Baptists Girls’ High School, Osogbo, and Baptist High School, Iwo.
‘Ewure’lo un o ba’gutan se,Aguntan loni iya oun o bi dudu’! If amalgamation of muslims and christians wards into the christian schools in the state wii only bring up pandemonium and commotion,then,both muslims and christian pupils should not merge and allow to go school of their wishes instead of causing collision here and there everyday!
The govt of osun state should reverse its recent policy because this might cause another religious fracas in the state,its not a must that he should force them to co_habit,its against freedom of choice.
The messages passed in this write up is quite misleading. These schools are government schools and not christian or Muslim schools, so nobody should say what is not true. When it is a government school everybody should have freedom of religion. Where is the religious tolerance that we preach. Please lets tolerate ourselves, its a government school, so we all have our freedom.
I dont know what the problem of ds xtians are. D school is a government school havg bn taken over by d government since many years ago. It is being funded by tax payers’ money which include d xtians, d muslims and d idol worshippers. It only bears xtian name, it is a government school, and every pupil in d area can go there! Evn not al student7 at d school before d merger are xtians, there are many muslims there, they are being suppressed by not allowing dm to use hijab and pray in d school. These students were posted there by d Ministry of Education not their parents. So it is not their fault. LIVE AND LET’S LIVE!!!
@Ibrahim Abdul. but does that call for the beating up of the principal, you are being bias in your comment blaming the xtians, is beating up the way out or do you want to tell me that if it were the other way round,the muslims will not give any reactions. This world is not forever(afowoba file ni o). God will help us
Why not avoid problem at all cost? Its a known fact that the schools belong to the state government but for peace sake seperation. Is an alternative
I believe that the Mr Aregbesola was thoughtless and not considering religious flare-ups when he came up with the meger policy: now kiths and kins are being set against each other
Fumzy u ar bias 2,dis useless principal always did dis bad attitude 4 abt last 5 month nd he beat nd sent student using hijab away 4rm school nd dey later settle d case,last week dis principal started his bad behaviour again b4 it lead 2 d parent’s annoyant wen all those parent started 2 beg him yestaday bt he refused 2 let dem enter d school premises nd if u ar good parent what u wil do nd remember dis school is govnt school nt xtians school nd dis country u ar free 2 any religion. bcos am a xtian let allow peace 4 God sake.xtian y ar u always criticise muslims, i av many muslims as a friend nd dey ar good nd nice 2 me.pls let allow peace in yorubaland bcos we ar d best tribal in d world
Fumzy u ar bias 2,dis useless principal always did dis bad attitude 4 abt last 5 month nd he beat nd sent student using hijab away 4rm school nd dey later settle d case,last week dis principal started his bad behaviour again b4 it lead 2 d parent’s annoyant wen all those parent started 2 beg him yestaday bt he refused 2 let dem enter d school premises nd if u ar good parent what u wil do nd remember dis school is govnt school nt xtians school nd dis country u ar free 2 any religion. bcos am a xtian let allow peace 4 God sake.xtian y ar u always criticise muslims, i av many muslims as a friend nd dey ar good nd nice 2 me.pls let allow peace in yorubaland bcos we ar d best tribal in d world.
If your dad is that principal, will u have talk like this? Calling him useless even if he is a bad principal. And if the school is public have you trace record why iy is called baptist grammar and not ejigbo grammar
Sincerely beaten up d principal isn’t d best way to address d issue,if d principal died in d process of beating nko?
After all its a Christian school. we shall see who goes to heaven in the name of what ??No// Religion is not the standard. But what’s in mans heart. Will yu condone such acts? will yu allow yur self or yur children to adopt such standards? Why some one wakes up one morning 8 am only 2 perpetuate evil and all they desire is to do evil oloun sanu o” in the name of (hyjabu)
The man is been hospitalised so hijabu has won its battle end of story.
Shut up OMOTAYO AHMED IDOWU, the name of the school is BAPTIST HIGH SCHOOL, how is that a govt school? Better advice ur fellow adherants to learn to respect the laws and religion of others if they want peace. How would u feel is a christian pastor is appointed principal of a Ansarudeen school or any islamic school for that matter. Your governor is just is religious bigot whose envy of d giant strides of christian school is responsible for his malicious move towards infiltrating xtian schools with intent to take it over eventually. But let it be known that it will never happen, it will be resisted at all cost.
Maybe you are from Jupiter, I attended CMS grammar School, the first missionary school in Nigeria B4 2001, its a government school. Ansrudeen high school in Ekiti are government schools with christian prinipals and Muslim College, Oworonshoki is a government school with a christian principal. Reason well
Kudos to the last speaker @Aduke,but ur speech didn’t correlate to what’s on ground,ask urself is baptist school ejigbo is run by private owner? An here in Nigeria now you’re free to practise ur religion e.g ogbeni Aregbesola distributed galaxy tab to all senior school in osun state, an he introduce ifa olokun subject to ’em all
God bless nigeria i think we are yoruba nt hausa or igbo n b4 any yoruba man take action on any issue they think abt it very wel cos we hav d best culture so plz let encourage unity. I pray d principal we nt die in jesus name .
@John seun, thank God you prayed in JESUS name. God bless you IJN
Islam is a violent religion, period. All over the world they’re known for violence. Eliminate muslims from the world over today, the earth will be paradise for all of us. If you doubt me name any xtian country that perpetuate violence. Everything you hear them preach, they don’t practise. The best afa is the one that can do deadly charm. Take it or live it, ISLAM IS A RELIGION BLOOD SUCKERS.
How does wearing hijab add to the students academic performance? A school says no to hijab even LIE had helped in resolving it if they are not happy go take human right activist to plead your case. Principal is a symbol of government, if truly that principal was beaten then they had beaten the Governor
this ignorance should stop. Lets face it and get it right, the school belong to government would runs it with pros and cons. Setiment apart in respect of any religion no government schools are allow to put on or dress with ijab but rether with bret. So why should will turn things outside down.
Why do some people think/reason upside down? @Truth/False, why not ask those in the Armed forces why they also use beret and not hijab? Are there no muslim women in d military? Was the sign board concealed while they enrolled in Christian schools? Hijab is not part of school uniform and whoever insists on using it should go to Ansaru-whatever or any other place where it is permitted. Why do u people love to create chaos where none existed? Are school uniforms not a good covering enough for the chest which your hijab is meant to cover? Must they even get western education if western school uniform is haram? If they must use hijab, there are quranic schools. Go there. You want the education which Christianity originated, yet you treat Christians badly. Is your conscience intact? Anyway, it’s been said, All muslims may not be te_ro_ists, but All ter_o_ists are muslims. I guess boko haram is about to spring out in state of osun. FG is advised to be on the look out. Beating up a Principal? So archaic, animalistic and barbaric all in the name of Religion! Feigning Peace yet causing trouble!
NB:-They’ll prove me right soon by raining insults on my post with vehement violence. Lol. Anyway I’m not gonna visit this page again. *tongue out*
@ deji pls hw does d hijab affect academic performance, every should br realistic in what ever you are saying and if naming government school a xtian or muslim name is a problem, let the name of the school be change to ordinary name, to create awareness that all school belongs to the government, not any religion