Wudil Police Academy Cadet Dies of Alleged Starvation

A100-level, Course 9 police cadet of the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, Kano state, A.S. Jika, died on Saturday as a result of alleged starvation. 

Punch newspapers reports that Jika died following two weeks of continuous starvation, which resulted in severe malnourishment. 

Quoting some of his colleagues who opted to be anonymous, the report alleged that the Commandant of the Academy, AIG Sadiq Abubakar, adopted a high degree of high-handedness and financial mismanagement since he took over as head of the Academy. They cited the case with feeding allowance meant for the students which they alleged dried up since he assumed office. 

According to one of Jika's colleagues, who pleaded anonymity over dismissal fears, the late Cadet, a student of the Department of Computer Science from Adamawa state, collapsed inside a toilet early Saturday.

He was rushed from there to the institution's clinic where he was left untreated for hours due to lack of drugs before giving up the ghost. 

“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 added.

Another anonymous cadet explained that though the clinic now experiences a huge traffic of sickly cadets, it is of no use as it is ill-equipped for the purpose. 

According to him, late Jika would not have died if he had been attended to in the clinic, adding that cases of collapsing cadets are a regular occurrence due mainly to fatigue arising from a combination of malnourishment and strenuous regime of very demanding physical exercises introduced by the new Commandant. 

“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.”

Quoting some members of staff, the report also alleged that the new Commandant is indeed shortchanging the Academy in terms of monthly feeding allowance. It further alleged that the monthly allocation usually ends up in private pockets of some of the school's top officials. 

The medium added that the Commandant, AIG Abubakar, failed to respond to phone calls and or text messages sent to him in respect of the dvelopment.