Two suspects who allegedly flogged a student to death over absenteeism were arrested and detained by the police command in Kaduna State.

The acting police public relations officer in Kaduna, ASP Mansur Hassan, named the school Al-Azhar Academy, a private secondary school.

He told journalists in Zaria on Saturday that the commissioner of police in Kaduna has ordered a thorough investigation into the matter, adding that more would be arrested in connection with the student’s death. 

In a separate interview with journalists, an uncle to the deceased student, 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 said that before his death, the late Nuhu-Sambo was a JSS 3 (Basic 9) student of the school.

According to Mr Saidu, a friend of the deceased’s father took him back to the school and handed him over to the school principal.

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 still beaten to the extent that he lost some of his teeth and then went into a comma and subsequently lost his life,” Mr Saidu said.

In her reaction, Rukayya Sambo, a sister to the deceased, told journalist 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, Master Marwanu was given 100 lashes of the cane at the school assembly, where his teeth were broken.

“He was later taken to the principal, where he was stripped naked, and the beating continued till he no longer could breathe,” he said.

Mr Sambo further said 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. 

(NAN)