By Adeleye Kunle
The Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Umar Sanda, has confirmed that former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has faced threats to his life. Sanda revealed that the command had arrested several people in connection with the assassination plot, including a retired armourer, and that one of the suspects had confessed.
The police commissioner stated that the investigation into the murder plot had been expanded.
In a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, Dogara requested that the police headquarters intervene in the investigation into threats to his life.
Sanda told journalists on Sunday that a suspect confessed to obtaining guns from police armorers in order to kill Dogara and three others.
“When we asked who gave him the guns and he confessed he wanted to sell it, we now asked him, is it our own rifles that you want to sell, and he said, yes,” the police commissioner said. We arrested him and began an investigation. During our investigation, he implicated one person, with whom they share a house.
“In the course of our investigation into the first person, he stated that someone in Tafawa Balewa approached him and told him that he was looking for a rifle to buy, which prompted him to carry that gun.” We arrested him after he gave us the name of the person.
“When we arrested him, he admitted to us that he is looking for a rifle to buy because something terrible happened to him, that his house, along with those of others, were burned during the last December 2021 incident that occurred after the Baba Peter Gonto memorial anniversary.”
“He mentioned the names of some people, including the former Speaker, in connection with the incident, saying that is why he is looking for a rifle to kill him (Dogara), so we launched an investigation.” One thing about humans is that if they are guilty, they will not admit it until you use wisdom, so we have increased our investigation.”
Sanda also addressed the issue of missing police weapons from the armoury.
“And on the missing rifle in our armoury, I directed that our armoury be audited, and in the course of auditing, we discovered that, in addition to the two rifles we intercepted, some were not in the armoury, so we have expanded our investigation,” he said.
“As I speak to you, our retired armoury officer was arrested the day before yesterday because we had been looking for him, and he is now in our custody.”
“We were still investigating when we discovered that he had written to the IGP, alleging that we had failed to call to notify him.” I can assure you that if it weren’t for what that man said, he would not have discovered any statement from another person that his life was in danger.”
Sanda went on to say that, aside from the suspect’s confession that he was looking for a rifle to kill the former Speaker, no other suspect has corroborated his confession, and that “we wouldn’t want to tell the world that this is that and that and at the end of the day, investigation reveals a different thing.”
“As a result, this is not right, and the police are doing their job.” We will finish our investigations, and we are working on it. We will tell the world the outcome of the investigation once we are finished, by the grace of God; there is nothing to hide in it.”
“We got to where we are in this matter because of our tenacity and resilience; otherwise, we would not have known,” Sanda said. So, it’s not the way he said it, and we’re hoping that the citizens will give us some time to finish our investigation before we make it public, Insha Allahu.
“Even before now, we have informed Force Headquarters about the matter, and this issue that I am telling you about, if not because of the situation on the ground, which I am not supposed to tell the press until we have completed our investigations.”
“The letter stated that we had done nothing because his life was in danger, but that is not the case.”
In response to a question about Dogara’s petition to the IGP, the police commissioner stated, “Yes, he is correct; he has the right to petition the IGP; we are not saying it is wrong.” However, we have yet to confirm his claim that the police did not do the necessary or warned him that his life was in danger because it came from only one person and we have not found confirmation or corroboration that the threat from the other person is true.
“As a result, we’ve delegated the investigation to experts in handling armoury and murder investigators to do the right thing.” They are the ones who can confirm that the other suspect’s confessed threat to kill the former Speaker is true.
“They are the ones who will inform us that so and so persons are involved, and that is when we will tell the world what happened, even the former speaker himself, we have not reached the point where we will seek information from him as to whether he was facing a threat to his life prior to the incident, and then we will continue with our investigation until it is completed.”
“The former speaker spoke about himself, one Barrister Bala Gambar, CAN Chairman Tafawa Balewa LGA,” Sanda continued, “but on the confession of the other suspect, we have not gotten additional information from another person to confirm what is on the ground.”
“We know those whose homes were burned, and he is among those we have arrested; if he said what he said, we must investigate.” We must question him: why would you want to kill someone because your house was burned down?
“And if we find him guilty, we will prosecute him and tell the world what happened, but we will not come out without first completing our investigations and then telling the world about it.” We wouldn’t have said anything if it hadn’t been for the fact that he had made his letter public. Regardless, we will continue our investigation until we get to the bottom of the problem, Insha Allah.”
