The months of January and February, 2016 were indeed busy ones for the Kaduna State police command because hardly was there a day that cases of rape, and other crimes were not reported to law enforcement agents, a report by The Sun has disclosed.
Early January, five men were arrested by the Police for alleged criminal conspiracy, abduction and rape of a 16 year-old girl in Kaduna metropolis. One of the suspects, Sadiq Ibrahim was said to have abducted the girl from Mando area in the city on 16th January and took her to another suspect’s house, one Hassan Ibrahim in Ungwan Shanu where she was raped.
Confirming the incident, Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Zubairu Abubakar said the five suspects turned the girl into a sex slave after her abductions for five days.
“One Sadiq Ibrahim (m) allegedly abducted a 16-year old girl from Mando and took her to one of his friend’s residence, Hassan Ibrahim (m) of Ungwan Shanu. Having raped her, he handed her over to four of his friends, namely Hassan Ibrahim, Umar Musa Nafiu I. Goma and Kabiru Umar.
“They all raped and kept her as a sex slave for five days before their arrest. The suspects are in police custody and investigation is ongoing,” DSP Abubakar said.
In another development, on January 17, one Abdullahi Saleh, 30, was also arrested for allegedly raping an 11- year old girl, the police spokesman stated, adding that further investigation was also in progress.
A secondary school student, Yunusa Umar, 19, was arrested by the Police in Kaduna for allegedly stabbing his friend, Aliyu Yusuf, 22, to death over dispute over girlfriend. Four other suspects were said to have confessed to conniving with Umar to stab Yusuf to death along Atahiru Road, Malali area of Kaduna metropolis.
In its effort to stop drug trafficking, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kaduna arrested about 25 suspected drug addicts and traffickers in cocaine and other unlawful drugs within the same period.
Their arrest followed a raid carried out by the agency at a popular drug addicts’ den, called ‘The Black Street’ in Sabo Tasha area of the state capital. Some of the recovered drugs include cocaine, Indian hemp, codeine and tramol, among others.
Parading the suspects, NDLEA Commander, Samuel Azige said, during the raid, both cracked and powdery form of cocaine were recovered from the suspects.
Some of the suspects paraded at the Kaduna Command headquarters of the agency in Kaduna confessed to the crime.
One of the suspects, Barret Salihu, 22 said, “I don’t know why they arrested me, because I don’t sell wee-wee. I only take wee-wee.”
Asked why he takes ‘wee-wee’ (Indian hemp), Salihu said, “when I take it I feel okay, but now, I have not taken it, and I am not feeling okay.”
The NDLEA Commander explained that, preliminary investigations revealed that, the suspects wrap the powdered cocaine and sell, while they heat and inhale the cracked ones.
He however said that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigation was concluded, adding that the suspects had constituted nuisance and engaged in all forms of vices in the area.
“In fact, we have identified the owner of the houses the suspects use, and he told us that, he had made efforts to secure his property from the addicts, but when he bought blocks to fence the house the boys packed the blocks and sold them.
“There is another house where they have completely sent the owner away. He had to relocate to another place because of their threat. In fact, people have put their houses for sale around the area due to insecurity caused by these people”, he said.
In a similar development, following his arrest by the NDLEA for dealing on marijuana (Indian hemp), the village Head of Goma in Gimi district of Sanga Local Government area of the state, Ibrahim Danladi was suspended by the state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
Danladi was said to have been arrested by the NDLEA while in possession of a 1.5kg of marijuana in his Goma village on January 20. According to Samuel Aruwan, the governor’s media spokesman, operatives of the NDLEA arrested Danladi and reported the matter to the state government for necessary action because of his status as a traditional ruler.
Aruwan, who said the traditional ruler admitted ownership of the illegal drug, said that the NDLEA would charge him to court as soon as it concluded investigations. He said the decision to suspend the embattled village head was taken at the State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor El-Rufai.
There was a case of attempted assassination in the first week of February when some unidentified persons resorted to targeting individuals perceived as enemies. One of such individuals is the Zamfara State-born Fulani Christian activist, Mr. Yunana Shibau.
Shibau, it would be recalled, was widely reported in the local and international media in year 2000 when he championed a campaign against the introduction of the Sharia legal system in his home state of Zamfara where, Christian indigenes are in the minority.
It was also later in the news when at the height of Boko Haram insurgency in 2013, he reportedly went to the British Prime Minister official residence at 10 Downing Street, London with the advocacy that the British government and its allies in the west should redouble their military assistance to the Nigerian government through supply of hardware and intelligence in their fight against terrorism.
According to a security source, three persons accosted a close friend of Mr. Shibau in Kaduna last week, with a chilling message which they said was a warning to his “infidel friend and an enemy of the religion of Allah”.
Following this, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, raised the alarm that some individuals were being tortured and killed by hired assassins as well as armed robbers, instilling fear in people in other communities which often led to their displacement.
In a 10-point resolution signed by the Chairman of the communiqué drafting committee, Elder Danladi Yarima, at the end of the national executive committee meeting of CAN, it noted how minority ethnic groups and predominantly Christian communities are being terrorised over land matters in the middle-belt states.
“Individuals are harassed or sometimes tortured or killed in the hope of instilling fear in them as it happened recently in Rijana in Kaduna State. Many of such cases are not reported because of fear of not obtaining justice and fair-play from the security agents who are viewed as collaborators in the crime of subjugation.
“This kind of approach ensures that we eliminate those who live amongst us and yet help these vicious characters in carrying out such heinous destruction of human beings and property. Government should be proactive, practical and sustaining in its defensive activities”, the communiqué read in part.
Also, in January, Governors of the northern states bordering the dreaded Kamuku Forest in Kaduna State, where series of criminal activities have been ongoing for years, met and reviewed the security situation. The governors of Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna States met for the fourth time over the issue.
Joint security operatives have been combing the forest to find solution to rising fears of being a future nest for Boko Haram insurgents, even as their efforts succeeded in recovering 30,000 cattles from rustlers.
Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the closed door meeting which lasted for over two hours, spokesman of the governors, Aminu Bello Masari, who is the governor of Katsina State, said, “the essence of the meeting is to appraise the security situation concerning cattle rustling in the zone and other activities going on in Kamuku forest.
“This forest borders Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, and Niger. We have reviewed operations within those areas. I think we have made tremendous achievements, considering the number of stolen animals that were recovered from the forest.
“Over 30,000 cattles were recovered across the states bordering the forest. As you can see now the activities of the rustlers have reduced much. We are expecting to sustain this.
“On the issue of kidnapping, it is the fall out of the fight against rustling who may have decided to go into kidnapping since they have been blocked from stealing cattles”.
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