The trial of two students and five officials of the Deeper Life High School accused of sexual abuse against an 11-year-old boy, Don Davis Achibong, has commenced in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.
The two students in the dock are 13 years old. They are being tried for sexually molesting their fellow student. The five officials of the school, including a suspended principal, are on trial for negligence.
At the commencement of the trial, a court official asked people, including lawyers, who were not parties in the case, to leave the courtroom before the proceedings began.
The reason for the closed-door trial may not be unconnected to the age of the victim and accused persons. The victim is a child while the two accused boys are young teenagers.
The victim, a JSS1 student of the Deeper Life School, was alleged to have been sexually molested between October and December inside the school dormitory by the two senior students when he was switched from his dormitory to another that was filled with senior students.
“They will remove his boxer and push their legs and hands into his anus. Look at a child I sent to school, he came back with a broken anus,” the mother of the victim, Deborah Achibong had said in a Facebook post.
