A formal investigation by the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) has cleared Sea School Apapa of any wrongdoing regarding the controversial ₦390,000 fee charged to students of St. Francis Catholic Secondary School, Idimu, for a 10-day leadership programme.
St. Francis had billed parents the sum for a compulsory training session at the Sea School in Apapa, Lagos. With 122 students reportedly involved, the high cost sparked protests from parents, who petitioned the CLTC for a formal probe.
The parents’ petition was prompted by informal information suggesting the actual cost of the 10-day programme was less than ₦100,000. The ₦390,000 charge per child was nearly four times that amount, leading to allegations of extortion.
Before the formal probe was concluded by CLTC, an agency of the federal government who are owners of the Sea School in Apapa, the controversy forced both the Sea School and St. Francis management to disclose a breakdown of the fees.
Information obtained by TheNiche indicates that in January 2026, Sea School Apapa sent a letter to St. Francis fixing the training charge at ₦20,000 per day, totaling ₦200,000 per child. St. Francis billed parents ₦390,000, claiming the additional ₦190,000 covered branded T-shirts, medicals, and logistics for support staff. However, this breakdown was never communicated to the parents. Besides, St Francis School had already embedded the N390,000 in their fees (N130,000 per term) long before the Sea School sent the letter indicating the cost for the training.
Following the backlash, but before the official report was released, both institutions agreed to reduce the training fee to ₦10,000 per day. This adjustment lowered the total bill for St. Francis parents to ₦290,000.
Findings of the formal probe
On Monday, April 20, the CLTC released its official findings in a letter signed by the Director of Training and Development, Eriwarte Elehibiri. The report stated that the disputed amount “did not emanate from the Sea School.
According to the CLTC, the official training fee for 2025 was ₦75,000 per student (₦7,500 per day), covering feeding, accommodation, and logistics. For 2026, the negotiated fee rose to ₦100,000.
The investigation revealed that St. Francis began collecting funds long before an official fee was even agreed upon. The report indicates the school had already embedded ₦260,000—two-thirds of the eventual charge—into school fees across two terms in 2025, months before the Sea School dispatched its first fee proposal in January 2026.
“Considering that an amount for the training was yet to be arrived at, the pre-emptive action of the school clearly shows that it is not the Sea School that determines how much parents are charged,” the letter noted.
The agency emphasized that all payments for the programme are made directly into government coffers via the Remita system to ensure transparency.
“The Sea School does not concern itself with what the authority of St. Francis chooses to charge parents,” the statement clarified.