Parents of withdrawn, relegated NDA cadets write National Assembly over alleged injustice

Parents of withdrawn and relegated cadets of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna has sent a protest letter to the National Assembly over what in what they described as “undue, unjust and wrongful withdrawal of 53 cadets and relegation of nine others without due process and in breach of their fundamental human rights.”

Leader of the concerned parents, Prince Omamoke Akiri, in the correspondence dated February 7, 2020, and addressed to Senate President Ahmed Lawal, pleaded with the upper legislative chamber to prevail on the NDA management to urgently review the decision.

They contended that if the matter was not given the urgent attention it deserved, “it is capable of causing more security threats that are already threatening the very foundation of the country.”

Akiri, in the letter he signed on behalf of the all the parents of the affected cadets and made available to the media, stated that “ware writing to the Senate president to help us address the burning and tortuous issue meted out to our children by the NDA Commandant, Major General Jamil Sarham, which is capable of encouraging the cadets, who are already trained on the use of arms, to embrace crime.”

The statement read in part: “On January 22, 2020, we were shocked to hear from our children, of this ugly situation, via telephone calls and messages that the commandant had gathered them and told them of a situation, which is outside the general rules and regulations of the academy, based on the academic handbook. We are aware that withdrawals and relegations are usually done at the end of every academic year when there is always a dossier review. And the last of such was in October, in line with the normal routine and practice.

“Surprisingly, the cadets were shocked to see another dossier review in January 2020, which is an aberration and in our view, to justify some of the wrong actions of the academy’s administration, in the past. It should be noted that some of these cadets have already done their convocations and passing out parades (POP). That in effect means that the academy does not have any right to withdraw or relegate them anymore.”

The parents, therefore, demanded that the students should be reinstated and allowed to write their final examinations.

They further recalled that sometime in 2019, “they did same to a cadet whose parents sought redress from the Senate and the academy on noticing their errors within the system, decided to make new rules, which they now want to implement, and retrospectively too to the disadvantage if some cadets, who by all means are not supposed to be affected by such new rules.”