The commissioner of education in Bauchi state was stunned by reports that students organised secret marriages for themselves after money changed hands.
The Bauchi State government, at the weekend, closed the Sa’adu Zungur Model Primary and Secondary School in Bauchi, the state capital, over illegal marriages among senior students in the school.
The closure order, which also affected the primary section of the school, it was gathered, was given on Friday by the state deputy governor, Nuhu Gidado, who doubles as the Commissioner for Education, following a report received by the government on the illegal marriages among the students.
According to a press statement issued by his Special Assistant on Communications, Yakubu Adamu, the deputy governor attributed the illegal marriages among the students to moral decadence in the society.
Gidado stated the school would remain closed until a committee set up by the state government to investigate the matter came up with a detailed report and recommendations.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the illegal act among the students, said to have been rampant among them despite the fact that both male and female students had separate classrooms for learning, blew open last week during one of such illegal marriages.
It was further learnt that teachers in the school got to know about the act when a senior secondary (SS) 2 student organised one of such wedding ceremonies in the school premises to his alleged lover, also a senior student of the school.
The noise and cheers from jubilant co-students amidst the fun were said to have drawn the attention of the teachers, who rushed to find out what was happening only to discover that a ‘wedding’ ceremony was taking place between the two students.
They, however, reported their finding to the school’s principal, Mallam Ahmed Zailani, who in turn reported to the Ministry of Education with a view to taking appropriate sanction against the erring students.
Investigation revealed that male students used to pay N500 as bride price to their would-be ‘wife’ who are also students of the school as a condition for solemnisation of their marriages.
It further revealed that the ‘couples’ classmates also contributed money to buy snacks to eat during such ‘wedding’ ceremonies.
