The village chief of Jamigbe community in Gawu ward, Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), HRH Alhaji Danladi Aliyu, has disclosed how Usman Mohammed, the head teacher of the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School in the community, was recently killed by a venomous snake.

Speaking during a visit by Abuja Metro last Thursday, Aliyu said the snake entered through a crack in the wall of the headmaster’s office, hid under a chair, and attacked him the moment he entered.

He explained that the head teacher had arrived at the school in the morning to open his office and that as he prepared to sit down, a cobra struck.

The chief noted that the snake spat venom into the teacher’s eyes during the encounter, adding that the victim was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital in the neighboring Lambata village of Niger State.

According to the chief, the head teacher was pronounced dead a few hours later. He blamed the tragedy on the dilapidated state of the school’s infrastructure.

The incident, he said, threw the entire community—including parents and teachers—into a state of fear and mourning.

According to him, shortly after the attack, community members mobilized to the office and killed the snake.

“The unfortunate thing is that when I received information about the incident, members of the community discovered that the snake had passed through a broken wall into the head teacher’s office,” Aliyu said.

The chief said the structure, built through community efforts years ago, has fallen into a state of total disrepair. Aliyu added that it was only by God’s grace that pupils in the adjacent classroom were spared, noting that the walls in the learning areas are also cracked and crumbling.

“The pupils sit in a classroom attached to the head teacher’s office where the walls are also broken. This is extremely dangerous for the children too,” he said.

He noted that while there are two existing classrooms, there is no formal administrative block; the community-built office was the only administrative space available.

Describing the late head teacher as a hardworking and committed educator, the chief prayed for his soul.

He further called on the LEA to liaise with the Area Council or the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) to build befitting classro+oms and offices for the school.

Teacher shortage, absenteeism

The chairman of the school’s Parents Teachers Association (PTA), Adamu Salisu, also decried the lack of sufficient teachers.

He lamented that the few available staff hardly show up for lessons, noting that most are posted from Abaji town.

“We discovered that many of these teachers complain about the distance from Abaji town, which is why some of them only show up on days they feel like,” Salisu said.

He emphasized that this lack of punctuality has severely hampered learning.

He said the association has written several times to the Abaji LEA office to address the issue, but no action has been taken.

“We suggested to the LEA that since teachers from town struggle with the distance, they should employ NCE holders who are natives of this village. Until now, nothing positive has been heard,” he added.

Community lacks access to potable water

The village chief also expressed concern over the lack of clean drinking water. Despite the population size, the community relies on a single hand-pump borehole.

He said women are often forced to trek long distances to fetch water from a stream and appealed to the council to provide a motorized borehole with an overhead tank.

“Women queue every day at the hand pump just to get water. When it broke down last year, the community had to contribute money to repair it,” Aliyu said.

An official from the works department of the Abaji Area Council, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the council has captured the provision of motorized boreholes for several villages in Gawu ward—including Jamigbe—in the current budget.

“Regarding the school structure, that falls under the LEA office. The Secretary should write to the chairman, who will in turn forward the request to the FCT UBEB,” the official added. (Daily Trust)