The National Youth Service Corps, Zamfara state has come out to issue a statement on the incident of police brutalization of a corps member in Kaura Namoda in Zamfara state, for punishing a student.
“The attention of the NYSC Management has been drawn to stories making the rounds about the beating of a Corps member, Esi Uwakwe, serving in Kaura Namoda, Zamfara State, by the police purportedly at the instance of an influential indigene of the area.”
“The facts of the case were grossly exaggerated, especially in the social media. Our findings showed that the Corps member, who is serving in a school, went beyond his responsibility of teaching and adoption of acceptable approaches to discipline by causing knee injuries to one of his students whom he instructed to crawl on her knees.”
“The angered father of the student took the matter to the police and in the course of handling the case, an overzealous officer slapped the Corps member. Our position on the matter is that both the Corps member and the policeman were wrong in their approaches.”
“The overzealous policeman has since apologized for slapping the Corps member and the matter has been put to rest.”
“The management wishes to stress that the picture of a man with cuts on his back, which is being circulated online, is not that of Corps member Uwakwe, but merely posted with intent to cause mischief and further mislead the public.”
“While we sympathize with both the injured student and the Corps member, whose inexperience might have resulted in his excesses in his approach to discipline, we wish to restate that the publicity the case generated would have been normal if not for the exaggeration.”
“The management remains committed to the safety and dignity of Corps members, but wishes to advise those on teaching assignment to always exercise caution in handling disciplinary cases and to, especially, refer serious cases to their school supervisors to be on the safe side.”