- Several students traumatized over incident
While the Kaduna State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of the Principal and Vice of Al-Azhar School in Zaria, Kaduna State for allegedly flogging Marwanu Nuhu Sambo, a JSS 3 student of the school to death, traumatized students of the school are still reeling with shock over the incident.
Marwanu was said to have been brutally beaten by the Principal, the Vice Principal, and some prefects of Al-Azhar Academy for absenting himself in school.
The school’s management has also confirmed that those involved in the horrid incident have been arrested.
Again, the Public Relations Officer for the command, Mansir Hassan, said: “the police is fully aware of the incident and we are in control of the situation.
“Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the development. The CP has directed a full-scale investigation on the matter and we will get to its root.”
The now-late JSS 3 Sambo was reportedly paraded in front of the school assembly for missing classes. He was also said to have been subjected to merciless punishments including more than 100 strokes of the cane.
The Police Spokesman added: “At the assembly, the principal ordered that Marwanu should be given 105 strokes of the cane. Thereafter, they took him to the office, removed his clothes and trousers and continued beating him with sticks on the head and back and his body.
“The Principal later handed him over to the school prefects who continued beating him with sticks until one of his teeth fell off. It was at that point that the deceased went into coma.
“But instead of rushing him to the hospital, the prefects brought him out and dumped his body in the school premises near the male toilets until closing time.
“Cries from other students in the school who watched in trepidation reportedly attracted other teachers who rushed to the scene where they found that the boy had given up the ghost.”
Another source said the student was rushed to a private hospital in Zaria, but was confirmed dead by the hospital.
In a statement it issued on the sad incident, the school’s management said the punishment meted out to the deceased pupil was not part of the school’s policy, adding that the officers who imposed “the irresponsible punishment did it without consultation.”
The school’s management also said it was “deeply saddened by the incident that led to the death of the student and prays almighty Allah to forgive the shortcoming of the deceased, grant him jannat elfirdous as his final abode and give his family the fortitude to bear the irreplaceable loss.
“Furthermore, the officers that committed this act were suspended from the school forthwith and handed over to the Nigerian Police Force for investigation and further action.
“Finally the School is closed for Academic activities till further notice.”
In an interview with newsmen in Kaduna on Saturday, an uncle to the student, Isa Saidu, said his nephew, Marwanu Nuhu-Sambo, died at the school on Friday, October 20.
He added that before his death, Nuhu-Sambo was a JSS 3 student of the school.
Saidu disclosed that a friend of the student’s father 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 before the vice principal of the school took him to the assembly ground where the deceased was also flogged in the presence of other students.
He said: “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 still beaten to the extent that he lost some of his teeth and then went into coma and subsequently lost his life.”
In her reaction, Rukayya Sambo, a sister to the deceased, told newsmen that her late brother was asked to repeat his class after promotional examination which he declined and stopped going to the school.
Sambo said: “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 added 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.
The student’s schoolmates further disclosed that Nuhu-Sambo was given 100 lashes of the cane at the school assembly where his tooth was broken.
“He was later taken to the principal where he was stripped naked and the beating continued till he no longer could breathe,” they added.
