HRH Alhaji Danladi Aliyu, the village chief of Jamigbe in Gawu ward, Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has revealed that Usman Mohammed, the head teacher of the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School in the community, was recently killed by a poisonous snake.
Aliyu told our reporter last Thursday that the snake got inside the headmaster’s office through a break in the wall, concealed beneath a chair, and attacked him as soon as he walked in.
He said that the head teacher had come to the school in the morning to open his office, and just as he was about to sit down, a snake bit him.
The chief said that the snake spat poison into the teacher’s eyes during the attack. He also said that the sufferer was quickly sent to a hospital in the adjacent Lambata town of Niger State.
The chief said that the head instructor died a few hours later. He said that the catastrophe happened because the school’s infrastructure was in such bad shape.
He claimed that the whole neighborhood, including parents and teachers, was scared and sad because of what happened.
He said that right after the attack, people in the community came together at the office and killed the snake.
Aliyu added, “The bad thing is that when I heard about the incident, people in the community found out that the snake had gotten into the head teacher’s office through a broken wall.”
The chief claimed that the building, which was built by the community years ago, is now completely broken down. Aliyu said that the students in the next classroom were only saved by God’s grace. He also said that the walls in the learning spaces are damaged and falling apart.
“The students sit in a classroom next to the head teacher’s office, where the walls are also damaged. He replied, “This is very dangerous for the kids too.”
He said that there are two classrooms but no formal administrative block. The community-built office was the only place for administration.
The chief prayed for the late head teacher’s soul and called him a dedicated and hard-working instructor.
He also told the LEA to work with the Area Council or the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) to create appropriate classrooms and offices for the school.
Lack of teachers and students not showing up
Adamu Salisu, the head of the school’s Parents Teachers Association (PTA), also said that there weren’t enough teachers.
He was upset because the few staff members that are accessible hardly ever show up for classes, saying that most of them are from Abaji town.
Salisu stated, “We found out that a lot of these teachers complain about how far away they are from Abaji town, which is why some of them only come when they feel like it.”
He stressed that this lack of timeliness has made learning very difficult.
He said that the group has written to the Abaji LEA office multiple times about the problem, but nothing has been done.
“We told the LEA that they should hire NCE holders who are from this village because teachers from town have trouble with the distance. He said, “So far, nothing good has been said.”
People in the community can’t get clean water.
The chief of the hamlet also said he was worried about the shortage of clean drinking water. The neighborhood only has one hand-pump borehole, even though it has a lot of people.
He noted that ladies often have to walk a long way to get water from a creek, and he asked the council to put in a motorized borehole with an overhead tank.
“Every day, women stand in line at the hand pump to get water. Aliyu stated, “The community had to pitch in money to fix it when it broke down last year.”
An anonymous official from the Abaji Area Council’s works department indicated that the council had included the cost of providing motorized boreholes for numerous villages in Gawu ward, including Jamigbe, in the current budget.
“That part of the school structure is the LEA office’s job.” “The Secretary should write to the chairman, who will then send the request to the FCT UBEB,” the official said.
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