A principal and vice principal of a private secondary school in Kaduna have been arrested for allegedly flogging a student to death over absenteeism.
They were arrested and detained by the Police Command in Kaduna State, according to a statement by acting Police Public Relations Officer Kaduna, ASP Mansur Hassan.
Hassan disclosed the named of the school as Al-azhar Academy, a private secondary school.
He told newsmen in Zaria, on Saturday that the commissioner of police in Kaduna has ordered a thorough investigation in the matter, adding that, more would be arrested in connection with the death of the student.
In a separate 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, late Nuhu-Sambo was a JSS 3 (Basic 9) student of the school.
According to Saidu, a friend to 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 runaway 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 comma 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 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 school mates, Marwanu was given 100 lashes of the cane at the school assembly where his tooth 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.
