Heartbreaking!!! How A Cadet Officer Died Helplessly in Military Training at Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA)

A retired military officer and member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Danladi Angulu Kwasu has accused the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, of negligence leading to the death of his 19-year-old son.

Addressing a news conference in Kaduna on Monday, June 6, Wing Commander, Danladi Angulu Kwasu (rtd), broke down in tears as he narrated how the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) murdered his 19-year-old officer cadet son.

He said his son, Elshaddai Zishindung Kwasu who was admitted into the academy last September as a member of the 66th Regular Course, was sent to his untimely grave through a combination of gross negligence by the NDA.

Kwasu, a member of Kaduna State House of Assembly, said the late Elshaddai died in April this year as a result of drowning “occasioned by gross negligence combined with some deliberate acts on the part of the NDA and its associates,” and called on the academy to release the unedited recordings of activities leading to the death of his son.

He stated;

“I am here today to cry out, to let the world know and also protest the way and manner the NDA murdered my son through a combination of gross negligence and deliberate action and inaction. My 19-year-old son, Officer Cadet Elshaddai Zishindung Kwasu (NDA/10037), was admitted into the NDA in September, 2014; as a member of the 66th Regular Course.

“He was in year one at the time of the incidence. My son died on 30th April, 2015, as a result of drowning, occasioned by gross negligence, combined with some deliberate acts on the part of the NDA and her associates.

The NDA carried them for a camping exercise (Camp Highland). In the course of the exercise, the NDA staff pushed him into the water of the Kangimi dam (in the outskirt of Kaduna) at the deepest part of the dam.

He was pushed into this deep water from a platform that is some metres high above the water. “According to eyewitnesses, before my son was pushed into the water, he told his colleagues his reservations on the idea of using a rope as safety measure; and the NDA staff overheard him.

When my son disappeared into the water, the NDA staff watched helplessly as there was no any safety measure in place. Note that no life jacket was provided and there was no any life guard or diver that could go into the water to save the boy. The NDA running out of ideas on what to do, then called in local fishermen to use their fishhooks to search for my son inside the water.

Consequently, from the time the boy disappeared from the surface of the water at about 9am, it took the NDA three hours to bring him out from the water (at 11:55am) via the services of local fishermen. They (NDA) callously used a fishhook that hooked him by the mouth like a fish and dragged him out of the water, dead.

It was only after the death of my son that the NDA authority went and brought life jackets for others to use. It was also then that they brought in four local rescuers to be on standby. Unfortunately, this is the institution that is supposed to train young officers that are to lead our troops into battle ground to defend our father land.

I will not keep quite in the face of this kind of impunity. I will take all steps at my disposal to address this impunity and incompetence as displayed by the NDA authority. This is necessitated by the fact that my son was not the first officer cadet in NDA to get drowned due to negligence and incompetence on the part of the authority.

To date, not less than 20 officer cadets have suffered this fate; such cases include the case of Officer Cadet Ambele, Officer Cadets Barau and two others, in addition to cases of the over 15 officer cadets that got drowned in Onne, among others. “Yesterday, it was all these people; today it is my son; tomorrow it could be anybody,” Kwasu said.