A Junior Secondary School III student, Safiya Abbas Ahmed, has had her finger amputated after applying lizard droppings to a feste...
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A source in the school who said the Education Ministry has already waded into the matter, said Safiya was allegedly advised to apply lizard faeces and beans by a matron as local treatment in the absence of prescription drugs.
Safiya, 15, a student of Government Girls Junior Science Secondary School, Miga, Jigawa State, was unable to sleep owing to the pain from the wound but she could not be taken to the school authority for immediate medical attention as the principal was said to have warned the staff against taking any student’s complaint to her after school hours.
Disturbed by her condition, the matron in her dormitory introduced her to the lizard faeces concoction as a so-called traditional medicine. This, however further worsened the girl’s condition as her forefinger became swollen.
Despite her deteriorating condition, two days after, Safiya could not get any medical attention because the school had no clinic, and the principal was said to have left for the weekend in Kano.
Safiya later pleaded with one of her teachers to call her father, Malam Abbas Ahmed, who then took her to a hospital where it was diagnosed that infection from the first aid earlier applied had overwhelmed the finger and it should be amputated.
Narrating how it all started, Safiya said on the fateful day, she had observed a voluntary fast and that in the process of cutting onions to prepare a salad dish, she sustained a knife cut on her left index finger.
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Education, Rabi Ishaq, said the ministry had already set up a committee to investigate the matter and report back for necessary action.
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