‘Clubbing, alcohol un-Islamic’ — Kwara school justifies brutal flogging of students

The management of Musbaudeen Al Islamy Arabic School, Ganmo in Ifelodun LGA, Kwara state has sought to justify the brutal flogging of some students of the school.

A video showing some students of the Islamic school being subjected to intense flogging had earlier surfaced online.

The students were said to have attended a birthday party and reportedly took alcohol during the outing.

The clip had provoked a wave of backlash on social media, as many Nigerians condemned the handling of the students by the school authorities.

But reacting in a now-viral video, a cleric at the school, who is seen addressing the students during an assembly, said the punishment was to serve as a deterrent to others.

It is understood that the assembly was conveyed at the instance of the school management amid the criticism trailing the incident.

According to the unnamed cleric, the flogging was also informed by calls from some parents who accused the school of neglecting its roles after they saw a video of the students at the club.

“This assembly is about some of the videos being circulated to damage our name. Since we’ve being doing good things here, nobody circulated it. But we’re not bothered because it’s only part of our efforts to nurture you so that you can become good children to your parents,” the cleric said.

“Some people don’t know what some of the students that we punished did. Ours is an Islamic school and if we notice any infraction on the part of our Arabic students, we don’t take it lightly

“It was some of your parents that called us and started blaming us that we were not looking after their children who are kept under our care. When we tried to understand their position, they told us to check social media that some of our students went to club.

“When we eventually checked the said clips, we saw some of our students at a club where they were drinking. We saw a clip where one was kneeling down while others were pouring Trophy beer on him just to celebrate his birthday. In fact, a lady, who is also our student, was with them and they were hugging her.

“This saddened us, especially with what their parents said against us. That’s why we gave them that kind of punishment.

“Those who are drinkers may not see anything bad about what these children did. But to us, expected to teach the children Quaran, it’s very bad. It’s un-Islamic. We punished some four days ago and others three days ago.

“We don’t usually flog them. But their parents called us and some have assured us that they would stand with us to any length.”

‘We deserved to be flogged’

“As they flogged us on Wednesday, we believe we deserved the flogging as a form of discipline. We deserved it, but some of the students that were flogged went to post it on social media and I told them not to.

“They way some of our parents called the Imam to express support is what good parents should do because discipline will ensure that we don’t do that again.”