We recall the kidnap and eventual killing of the traditional ruler of Kajuru in Kaduna sometime last year. The Agom Adara, Dr. Maiwada Galadima died in painful but controversial circumstances. Galadima was kidnapped on October 18, 2018 and was killed about a week later by his abductors after collecting a N10million ransom. The killing spree also claimed his police orderly on the spot and took away the monarch’s wife and his driver, who were later freed. But others were not lucky, also killed during the tragic incident were three palace guards who were on the late first-class monarch’s entourage when his motorcade was intercepted by the kidnappers.
Since the tragic events controversy has continued to trail Galadima’s murder as his subjects maintain that the narratives about his demise were far from the stories being peddled by law enforcement and officials of the state government. Till date, most people in his domain believed that the eminent monarch was assassinated. They say his opposition to the creation of Kajuru Emirate Council which subsumed his office may have led to his gruesome murder. They argued that the fact that he was abducted and later murdered while returning to his palace after he accompanied the state governor to Kasuwan Magani to commiserate with families of victims of a violent clash makes the incident more curious than the manner it had been presented.
This controversy has been made worse as security agencies continue to tell conflicting stories on who were the real killers of the monarch.
Back in November 7, 2018, the Kaduna State Command of the Department of State Services, DSS paraded six suspects over the killing of Galadima. Among the suspects was a notorious kidnapper, Musa Mohammed, who had allegedly been terrorising people in the state. The DSS State Director, Mahmud Ningi, who paraded the suspects, said that 20 of them were involved in the kidnap and murder of the paramount ruler. He, however, said that six of them were arrested while the others were at large. The DSS gave the names of the suspects as Adamu Sani, Adamu Saidu, Adamu Isya, Yusuf Bello, Dahiru Muhammad Bello, and Mohammed Aminu.
Curiously, six months after the dust raised over the monarch’s death was yet to settle, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF came up with another version of the killing saying they had arrested the prime suspect and 17 others for similar offences. This was announced on April 29, 2019 by the Force’s Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, who named the monarch’s killer as Abubakar Ibrahim alias Dan Habu, a 37-year-old native of Kabam in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. While it is in order to congratulate the two security agencies for their feat, we however worry over the conflicting reports of the police and DSS over the matter. We find it suspicious that the identities of the six suspects arrested by the DSS do not fit into that of the one held by the police. The names, ages, and home towns of the suspects do not match. So who then is the real killer of Agom Adara Galadima?
This is not the first time there will be this kind of discrepancy in official reports of such magnitude. We shudder to think what happens in the reports of lesser personages. We recall the death of then governor of Edo state Adams Oshiomole’s personal secretary. The police and DSS also came up with conflicting reports, suspects and evidence; till date that matter has not been resolved. Therefore, this particular incident is a clear manifestation of a deeper malaise. It is not just about synergy among government law enforcement agencies it is more about what is the truth. Even if the two agencies carried out parallel investigations, they should arrive at the same suspects, evidence and circumstance. This is simply troubling.
We call on government to impress it on the two agencies to go back and carry out a better investigation. The truth may be with either of the agencies or none. Then it’s baffling? They forget that it is the peoples’ money they are wasting. Even if they are under pressure to crack the crime, it does not give room for this kind of deliberate “suspect-hunting”. This will not help the situation one bit. It can only escalate the suspicions among the people of Kaduna who have had too many killings in the past two years. Government should not sit back and watch this. There has to be a resolution and every step to ensure accountability must be made public.
