Tragedy struck at the Nigeria Police Academy in Wudil, Kano State, as a 100-level course 9 police cadet, A.S. Jika, passed away after enduring continuous starvation and malnourishment for over two weeks.
Some of the cadets, who spoke with The Punch, accused the Commandant, Assistant Inspector-General, Sadiq Abubakar, of high-handedness and financial mismanagement of feeding allowance meant for the students.
The late cadet, A.S. Jika, from Adamawa State and a student in the Department of Computer Science, reportedly collapsed in the academy’s toilet in the early hours of Saturday.
According to an anonymous cadet, he was rushed to the academy’s clinic but remained untreated due to the lack of essential medical supplies and personnel.
“He was left untreated because there are no drugs and no medical officer to attend to him in the unconducive environment, before he gave up and died,” the source said.
Another cadet, who preferred not to be identified, highlighted the inadequate and poor-quality food provided by the academy since the new commandant took office.
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He said, “Since the new commandant assumed office, they’ve been providing very bad and inadequate food for us. The boy that died was not up to 20 years old. The boy wouldn’t have died if they’d attended to him. The commandant also ordered the closure of the market and laundry and approved undeserved training exercises during lecture hours.
“Cadets collapse daily here during training due to fatigue, because it’s either they’re starved, malnourished, or both. We’re usually threatened by the commandant and forced to engage in unwarranted training exercises. Also, many cadets have been dismissed on the basis that they fell sick; that’s why many are trying to manage themselves to avoid expulsion from the academy.”
Meanwhile, staff members, who spoke to Punch, complained about the monthly feeding allowance of the academy.
A source privy to the running of the academy revealed that part of the money was usually diverted into private pockets by some top officials.
The academy has not comment on the incident.