Maryam Hassan, a student at Lead British International School in Abuja, has raised the public’s eyebrows after videos capturing her bullying Namtira Bwala, another female student, circulated widely on X (formerly Twitter).
In the first two disturbing videos posted on Monday, which have since gone viral, Hassan can be seen repeatedly slapping Bwala while berating her over a romantic relationship issue.
The footage captures Hassan delivering 15 slaps to Bwala while instructing her not to defend herself. In the background, a male student accuses Bwala of interfering in Hassan’s relationship by snatching her boyfriend.
“What is the boy’s name?” Hassan asked Bwala while hitting her repeatedly as other students laughed in the background.
“Her face don (has) turn red,” said another student in the background while Bwala continued to be the recipient of several slaps.
In a separate video, Hassan was seen slapping Bwala several times while asking her, “Who broke my heart?”
Although X users are trending the hashtag JusticeForMaryam, Bwala’s cousin, who only wishes to be identified as Hannatu, said that the parents of the bullied were aware of the assault on their daughter and would take the matter up.
When FIJ contacted the school via its Instagram page for comments, it did not respond. FIJ also observed that the school had disabled its comment section at press time.
Bullying in Nigerian secondary schools is not new and has become a cause for public concern in recent times. In December 2021, the family of Sylvester Oromoni Junior, a 12-year-old Dowen College student, claimed that five teenagers in the school bullied him to death. Following an inquest, however, a Lagos coroner has blamed the death on natural causes, the parents and their family doctor.
In December 2020, Don Davies Archibong, an 11-year-old boy who was sexually molested by senior students at Deeper Life High School, Uyo, was in the news.
