Monday Agbonika, Edo State Police Commissioner
The Edo State Police Command said on Saturday that all the students of the Igbinedion Education Centre (IEC) implicated in a bullying incident in the school have been arrested and would be charged to a family court in accordance with extant laws guiding juvenile justice and child protection.
Giving an update on the viral bullying incident which sparked widespread outrage in a statement dated March 21, 2026, signed by the Police Public Relations Officer Eno Ikoedem, the command confirmed that following a thorough and painstaking investigation, all individuals directly connected to the incident have also been identified.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that two senior secondary school 3 students had been captured in the video that went viral Friday March 13, 2026, brutally assaulting a junior student, while another was recording the dastardly act. They have all been expelled from the school.
The police, in the statement titled: “RE: Update On Viral Bullying Incident – All Students Arrested, To Be Charged To Family Court”, appealed to members of the public to remain calm, assuring that proactive steps were being taken to ensure that “justice is not only served but that measures are also emplaced to prevent a reoccurrence”.
Tracing the genesis of the incident, Ikoedem, an assistant superintendent of police, (ASP) said, “Preliminary investigations revealed that the incident originated on Thursday 5/03/2026 when two female students, names withheld, both aged 14, had a disagreement with a fellow student. During the altercation, the said student reportedly uttered offensive words directed at their late father, specifically saying, “Ogun kill your papa.”
“Angered by the remark, the girls allegedly attacked the student after school hours. In the course of the assault, a parent, who had come to pick up her son, intervened but the two girls, still enraged, turned on the woman, physically confronting her and dragging her clothes. The school management subsequently intervened and expelled the girls for engaging in violent conduct.
“On the following day being Friday 06/03/2026, a retaliatory incident occurred. The male student, whose mother was earlier assaulted, attacked the victim in the viral video in what has been identified as a revenge assault, which was recorded and posted by one of the students. The victim being the brother of the girls that assaulted his mother”.
Consequently, the police spokesperson disclosed that the Commissioner of Police has ordered the immediate deployment and intensification of the Operation Safe Schools Initiative across secondary schools in Edo State, “with a mandate to identify the gap in supervision and leverage lessons learnt in this matter, to prevent a recurrence”.
She said, “Additionally, the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) has been strategically mobilised to engage students and school administrators through advocacy, sensitisation, and reorientation programmes”.
Urging parents, guardians, and school authorities to take greater responsibility in the moral upbringing and supervision of their children and wards, the Command, in the same vein, advised students to shun violence and report grievances through appropriate channels.
“The Edo State Police Command remains committed to maintaining law and order and safeguarding all residents, especially children”, the statement concluded.