The
trail of the suspects, who abducted and murdered late Col. Samaila Inusa, a
Chief Instructor at the Nigeria Army School of Infantry, Jaji, Kaduna State,
started with a simple Tecno phone.
Now,
police authorities have revealed the identity of four suspects behind his
killing after an operation that involved operatives of the Inspector-General of
Police Special Intelligence Response Team, men of the Kaduna State Police
Command and the Special Intelligence Bureau.
Three
months after the abduction and killing of the colonel by gunmen at the Kamazo
area of Kaduna Refinery Road, on Sunday, March 27, 2016, the police said the
suspects were tracked down through the victim’s Tecno mobile phone traced to
one of the suspects.
The
suspects, who have confessed to their various roles in the crime, which shocked
both the civilian and military population in the state, told the police that
they had no link to the Shiite group, which had previously been accused of
being behind the abduction.
It
will be recalled that Inusa was found dead around Ajyaifa village home in
Kaduna, just two days after he was abducted in the presence of his wife while
on their way from an outing.
The
suspects arrested are Chijioke Ugwuanyi, Abdulahi Adamu, Ibrahim Kabiru, Ebere
Precious and Emeka Okeke Cyprian, said to be the leader of the gang who
personally shot Inusa.
In
his statement to the police, 44-year-old Cyprian, an Imo State indigene and
father of three, explained that he killed Inusa because the latter was about to
kill him.
According
to him, on the day of the abduction, he was on the road with his gang members
on their usual car snatching ambush, when they saw Inusa’s Mercedes SUV.
He
said the vehicle’s flashy headlights attracted them and they decided to trail
the vehicle, following the victim to his house in Kamazo area.
Cyprian
said, “When the driver stopped to open the gate, we realised that the driver
was a woman and there was a man beside her in the vehicle. I thought the man
must have been the owner of the vehicle. We pounced on them and I ordered the
man into our own car.
“I
asked Chijioke (Ugwuanyi) to take over the Mercedes and take it to Dan Sokoto.
Kabiru was the one driving our own car.
I told the man to relax and that all I wanted was his car and promised
not to kill him. I told him he could always buy another vehicle.
“We
took him into a bush around Abuja by-pass in Kaduna. I told the man to lie down in the bush. He asked for water, but when I was about to
give him the water, he dived at my gun and tried to remove the magazine. I was
shocked.
“He
gave me a head butt and beat me so much. But I held tightly to the rifle and we
struggled on the floor. I don’t know
what he touched but the trigger could not fire.
If not for God, the man would have killed me. Luckily for me, the
trigger fired and I shot the man. I
didn’t know that the man was an army officer at the time. He was very strong.”
Cyprian
said he only knew he had killed an army officer when Ugwuanyi called him five
hours later and told him he saw army documents in the man’s vehicle.
He
said they quickly arranged to sell off the victim’s car for N900,000 and he
advised every member of the gang to clear out and lay low for some time.
He
said, “Then the news was everywhere. Chijioke told me that he wanted to quit.
But we decided to do one last job and stole a Toyota Avalon car. Chijioke took
the car to Niger Republic by himself and sold it to one Garuba.
“Chijioke
relocated to Enugu, while I stayed back in Kaduna watching as things unfolded.
Not long after, Kabiru and Ebere were both arrested by the SIB in Kaduna.”
We learnt that Cyprian was sleeping in his sister’s house last week Saturday
when the police surrounded the house and arrested him.
“I
told them that I would reveal everything when we got to the station. At the station, I also helped in luring
Chijioke back to Kaduna where he was arrested,” he said.
Source: The Punch
Source: The Punch
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