A school principal and the vice principal 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 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.”

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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.

Confirming the incident, 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.

The Star