It was a memorable day when the school was commissioned on Children’s Day as pupils and residents trooped out in their numbers to witness the commissioning by Ummi El-Rufai, wife of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
Before the new building was commissioned, the population of 12,000 students had been cramped in few classrooms with as many as 200 students in a class.
The school was designed for a population of 500 students. However, the state government’s free feeding programme for schools saw the population shoot up to 12,000, leading to congestion.
The school’s Headmaster, Salisu Abdulsalam, said with the increase in population at the old site, it became almost unbearable to teach a class of between 150 and 200 pupils.
It was Rabiat who bore the full weight of the truck and by extension the full weight of Nigeria’s war.
It was a weight too heavy for her body to bear. She was crushed to death on the spot. Her sister Maryam and their friend Farida suffered serious injuries, little Farida more so.
“There were other students who were standing along with them at the time,” a relative told
Daily Trust.
“The truck came at high speed, hit a parked Toyota car, and the car ran over the victims.”
On behalf of the Army
The truck that caused Rabiat’s death was a civilian vehicle transporting weapons to Zamfara on behalf of the Nigerian Army.