A school environment is meant to be the epitome of sanctity, devoid of external vices capable of corrupting or influencing the minds of students.
Sadly, that is far from the picture cut by the surroundings of Silver Spring Schools in the Ikotun area of Lagos State.
For a first-time visitor to the area, it would be difficult to locate the school as it is obscured by a series of stalls and kiosks built close to the drainage, by the school fence.
The first impression that comes to mind on getting to the place is that of a fast-expanding local market meant to serve the immediate needs of those living close by.
However, a closer look would reveal something more sinister, a melting pot for gamblers and alcoholics.
Based on findings made by our correspondent, due to easy access to alcoholic drinks packaged in sachets, students in schools around the area find pleasure in converging at the market to indulge and after getting high, would break into fights, disrupting the peace of the area.
How, succour came the way of motorists, residents and business owners, who have over the years complained about the activities of the traders
Officials of the Lagos Waste Management Authority and the state’s Ministry of Environment stormed the area and demolished stalls and kiosks built by the traders on the drainage channel beside the school.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that this development followed a request made by a lawyer and development consultant, Mrs Iyabo Awokoya to the Lagos State Ministry of Education and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency via her verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, according to the official internet portal for all schools in the state known as ‘Lagos Schools Online’, the Silver Springs Schools, which is situated at Onitire, Abaranje, was started by its proprietress, Mrs Olaide Fawehinmi in 2001.
The school, our correspondent gathered, has about 105 students and has another college located in Ijeshatedo, Surulere.
In a photograph of the school, which Awokoya appended to her post, an array of wooden kiosks and umbrellas owned by traders could be seen adjoining the fence erected by the school.
The traders who ranged from Point-of-Sale operators to those who hawked snacks and pastries had their merchandise placed over the drainage channel, beside the school building.
Findings by PUNCH revealed that in the past few years, through various press releases, the Lagos State Government had expressed worries over the increasing abuse of setbacks and incidental open spaces around public schools and has sought to check such infractions.
In a series of replies to comments elicited by her post on Silver Spring Schools, Awokoya lamented that the shops had repelled parents from registering their children in the school, noting that its premises had been turned into a marketplace.
She further disclosed that the efforts of the school proprietress, who is her aunt, to eject the illegal traders had failed and she had even become afraid due to the recalcitrance of the stall owners.
The post read, “Dear Lagos State Ministry of Environment, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, LASEPA official, Tunde, Please this is my aunty’s school on Abaranje Road, Ikotun, in Lagos.
“See the way the traders have taken over the setback and have erected permanent kiosks even attaching them to the fence. We have reported in all the possible places to be reported to no avail. Later the Ministry of Education will come with a contravention order. How can a school be rendered to a market?
“And they are vicious. My Aunt is 70 years old and afraid of them now. They first promised to leave when the LGA came with my agent, but then they failed. Then the LGA also relented. There is nothing we have not done. We petitioned the LGA and LCDA, Tunde Sosina,” she wrote in two separate posts.
Govt evacuates illegal stalls
Barely 18 hours after Awokoya’s post, state officials came to the school premises and removed the stalls and kiosks around the drainage setback
The state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, in a post made via his X handle, on Thursday, said he gave the directive and urged the school principal to take over the school setback.
He wrote, “As I instructed, illegal kiosks built on drainage setbacks beside Silver Spring Schools, Abaranje Road, Ikotun were earlier today evacuated by the Lagos State Waste Management Authority enforcement team and the Lagos State Ministry of Environment monitoring officers.
“The monitoring officers were directed to request the principal of the school to take over the setback and then beautify it in accordance with the ‘ Greener Lagos’ policy of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration.”
Responding to this, Awokoya posted on Thursday, “Wow! I truly can’t believe this. I cried out here yesterday about illegal kiosks that are erected in front of my aunty’s school in Ikotun and right now they are being evacuated.
“Dear Tokunbo Wahab, this is an uncommon favour sir. My aunt just called me to let me know. I am grateful to LASEPA and its General Manager, Tunde Ajayi. Lagos is working. Please Oliver Twist needs a little more help. The okadas that are always parking in front of the school entrance should find another bus stop.
“My aunty was getting so frustrated that she was thinking of selling the school and just keeping her flagship school in Surulere. The (school) expansion led her into a problem. Now, the Ministry of Environment has asked that we beautify immediately and my aunt is a flower lover so I am sure she will get cracking immediately.”