Our Children’s Last Moments, By Parents of Police Cadets
Having concluded their semester examination on Friday, May 4, Tijjani Rufa’i Dikko, Abdulrahman Dari, Yusuf Shehu, Muhammad Bello, also known as Yammad, cadets of Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State, embarked on a journey to Zaria, their home town, alongside A’isha Bello, their female colleague who came from Abuja. They never knew that death was waiting for them on the way. They had successfully covered over 170 kilometres out of the 180 from Wudil to Zaria. A’isha was said to be the Ameera (female president) of the academy’s Muslim Students Society.
The five cadets and other passengers died at Maraban Gwanda, a village located about 10 kilometres on the outskirt of Zaria.
According to eyewitness accounts, the Golf car they were travelling in had a head-on collision with a J5 bus that was on high speed. The two vehicles were immediately engulfed in flames. The cadets were burnt beyond recognition. Their remains were packed in sacks and moved to the Haruna Danja Juma’at Mosque for funeral, according to Islamic rites.
Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that the ongoing repairs on the Kano-Zaria expressway were responsible for the accident. Aliyu Usman, who witnessed the accident said, “One lane of the road was blocked by the construction workers. Therefore, all vehicles coming to Zaria and those moving out were made to use one lane. There were no safety signs to indicate that the dualised expressway was reduced to one lane because of the repairs. That would have made motorists to take precautionary measures and be more careful. That was what caused the accident.”
Daily Trust on Sunday of the cadets as irreparable loss to the institution and Nigeria as a whole.
As they continued to mourn, parents, relatives and friends of the deceased cadets, as well as residents of Zaria interviewed by our correspondent, called on the Federal Government to approve automatic replacements for them, particularly from their respective families. This, according to them, would further console the affected families and the entire Zaria city.