The growing incidence of burglary and destruction of properties at a public school compound in Iju, Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State has become a source of concern to teachers, pupils and others in the community.

Hoodlums have been laying siege on the school premises, which houses five primary schools and two junior secondary schools, for weeks now. Many valuables including the school’s drums and other musical instruments, a radio set, a stabilizer, a power generating set and even the school stamp have been stolen in the process.

Sources at one of the schools, St Kizitos Catholic Primary School II, said the latest round of burglary began three weeks ago when the thieves invaded the headmistress’s office and several classrooms and carted away valuables. One of the sources told our reporter that the headmistress’s office was burgled again last Monday.

He said: “They gained entrance into the office through the ceiling and took away English and Mathematics textbooks supplied by the Lagos State Government through the Eko Excel initiative. The following day, Tuesday, they returned and vandalized white boards supplied to each classroom and went away with their aluminium frames.

“On Thursday, which is two days after, they came and removed portions of the metal windows in some classes to see what is remaining in the classrooms. They probably discovered that there were no more valuables in the classrooms, so they did not go in.”

He said the hoodlums have destroyed many of the newly-fitted metal windows; at least to peep through the opening thereby created, to find out if there are valuables in the classrooms. (The Nation)