A.S. Jika, a 100-level course 9 police cadet, allegedly passed away on Saturday at the Nigeria Police Academy in Wudil, Kano State, after suffering from malnutrition and persistent starvation for more than two weeks.
Some of the cadets accused the Commandant, Assistant Inspector-General Sadiq Abubakar, of being self-serving and mismanaging the money allocated for the cadets’ meal allowance.
Early on Saturday morning, Jika, a student in the department of computer science and a native of Adamawa State, passed out in the bathroom.
The victim was reportedly brought to the academy’s clinic, according to a cadet who spoke on the condition of anonymity to prevent punishment.
“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.
A cadet, who also asked to be anonymous, said there was usually high traffic of unwell cadets at the ill-equipped clinic on a daily basis.
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.”
At the time of filing this information, there has been no statement on the incident from the commandant of the academy, AIG Sadiq Abubakar.