The school principal and vice of Al-azhar Academy, a private secondary school, have been arrested by the officers of the Kaduna State Police Command for allegedly flogging a student to death over absenteeism in the Zaria area of the state.
In an interview with newsmen, an uncle to the deceased student, Malam Isa Saidu of Kofar Kuyanbana area, Zaria, said his nephew Marwanu Nuhu-Sambo died on October 20 at Al-Azhar Academy, a private secondary school in Zaria.
He added that before his death, lathe the Nuhu-Sambo was a JSS 3 (Basic 9) student at the school.
According to Saidu, a friend of the father of the deceased took him back to the school and handed him over to the principal of the school.
He added that the principal flogged him in his presence, thereafter the vice principal of the school took him to the assembly ground where the deceased was flogged again in the presence of other students.
“The late student was again taken to the principal’s office and flogged again where he attempted to run away but was prevented from running away by the school prefects.
“He was beaten to the extent that he lost some of his teeth and then went into a coma and subsequently lost his life,” Saidu said.
In her reaction, Rukayya Sambo, a sister to the deceased, told newsmen that her late brother was asked to repeat his class after a promotional examination which he declined and stopped going to the school.
“He was then taken to the school by one of his uncles and handed over to the school principal who vowed to punish him for absconding.
“It was after the uncle left the school that the teachers engaged late Marwanu in a serious beating to the extent they broke his tooth and later killed him,” she said.
According to his schoolmates, Marwanu was given 100 lashes of the cane at the school assembly where his teeth were broken in the process.
“He was later taken to the principal where he was stripped naked and the beating continued till he no longer could breathe.
Sambo further said that her brother’s corpse was abandoned near the school toilet till the school closed, after which the school management rushed him to a nearby hospital only to be told that he had died.
As of the time of filing this report, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer Kaduna, ASP Mansur Hassan, said the state Commissioner of Police has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident, adding that other suspects would be arrested in connection with the death of the student.