A crisis broke out at the Aces Nursery, Primary and Secondary School in Abuja when a father, Muhammed Jimeta, assaulted a teacher, Sekinat Adedeji, for allegedly beating his daughter, Karima Jimeta.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Recounting her ordeal to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday, the teacher, Sekinat Adedeji, said she was holding her three-month-old baby when her pupil’s father, Muhammad Jimeta, assaulted her.
According to her, she teaches the female pupil, Karima Muhammad Jimeta, in Basic Three.
She said, “It happened around 12:30 pm on May 29, 2024, when I used a rule on her leg when she and others were disturbing and were asked to kneel down.
“The pupil shockingly disrespected me by giving me a ‘wanka’, that was why I beat her on the leg with a small rule.”
Pronounced as “uwarka” in Hausa, literally meaning ‘Your Mother’, the word is an abusive expression used by stretching out one’s five fingers towards a person.
Adedeji continued, “The father slapped me four times close to 4 pm because our school closes at 3 pm. His daughter reported what happened at 12.30 pm to him at the close of school when he came to pick her up.
“The child is not serious with her studies and insults teachers who come to the class”
A parent who witnessed the incident, Magdalene Ukuedojor, alleged that the female pupil had a habit of insulting everyone, stressing that the father had no justification to lay hands on a nursing mother and teacher of his child.
“The teacher has a three-month-old baby. She carries her baby in a carrier. This man beat her up while she was carrying this baby in front of little children.
“Teachers were even begging, they knelt begging but he still charged at her. She had to run and leave the class. It was when I came to pick up my son that I saw her outside, her face already swollen.
“And other teachers, because they don’t want to talk and lose their jobs, everybody was angry that this girl was very insulting. She does this all the time. Parents are angry. He should have reported it to the school authorities not to beat the teacher up.”
When PUNCH Metro contacted the father, Jimeta, he claimed the teacher had been assaulting his child for weeks.
“This woman has been beating that child for such a long time. The last time she beat her up, I talked to the school management and they calmed me down. But she was shouting at me and I didn’t talk to her.
“After two days, she beat the child and sent her to come home and tell us that she’d beaten her and dared us to do what we wanted to do.
“If you see the marks and the blood on her legs, she made me crazy.”
The school owner, Aminu Kani, did not respond to inquiries from our correspondent when PUNCH Metro contacted him.