By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
Over 400 students at the J. E. Acquah English and Arabic School located in the Monrovia suburb of Logan Town, Bushrod Island have been thrown out of their school building based on order of the Supreme Court of Liberia.
The order throwing the 400 students out of their school building was enforced by officers from the Bushrod Island Magisterial Court during the weekend, thus depriving hundreds of pupils their right to education.
According to court’s record, Tenneh and Morris Somboi were ordered out of the building in which the school has operated for the last 25 years.
The Bushrod Island Magisterial Court was instructed to ensure that the building is handed over the Isaac Essel and those evicted from the building should pay 30,000 United States Dollars to victor in the case.
But, the proprietor of the school, Madam Tenneh Sombai, disclosed that high court rendered the judgment and order because of the failure of her lawyer to attend the hearing of the case.
She noted that she suspected her lawyer of conniving with the man claiming the ownership of the building because he abandoned the case without informing her.
The woman expressed regret because the ninth graders have already paid to sit for the test of the West African Examination Council
According to her, the victor in the case has deployed disadvantaged youths (Zogoes) in the building and armed with cutlasses. Madam Sombai is therefore appealing to President George Weah for his intervention, in order to cater to the education of the 400 children to go on.
She claimed that the wayward youths commonly called “zogoes” have begun selling the materials that were bought for the expansion of the school bathrooms and black boards.
Meanwhile, the President of the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia has called on the Liberian government to ensure that the affected students return to classes.
Ishmael Konneh said though he is not contending that the high court ruling but the government including stakeholders in the sector must ensure that the students continue their education.
He expressed fear that if nothing is done urgently to remedy the situation, the education of the children who he described as the future leaders might be jeopardized.