If you have been privileged to visit many murder scenes, you will be able to process easily what it means when someone is gruesomely murdered. I mean sometimes being slaughtered like chicken the way the boko haram terrorists used to treat human beings in the Hadin Kai war theatre when Shekau held sway.
It reminds us also of the butchery that went on when the Scots were butchered after they started their rebellion against the British in those dark days. The pains, and shouts associated with barbarism of the highest order. In the African context the use of cutlasses and knives to butcher the person especially on the left side of the chest where the heart is so that he bleeds to death slowly.
That is exactly what was done to a lecturer Dr Kamal Abdulkadir of the physical and health department of the University of Maiduguri recently when assailants butchered him to death in his office in the main campus of the University of Maiduguri (Unimaid) by Bama road.
Abdulkadir who is described as a quiet and unassuming academic had gone to his office last Sunday obviously to do some work. He was busy on his laptop computer meaning what he was doing was very important in that quiet location of the unimaid campus when he was killed. These strange assailants were said to have rushed in, closed the door, butchered him like a beast and took him back to his chair to give the impression to any curious passer by that he was still engrossed with his work as exams officer of the faculty of education.
Anxiety at home over his silence
His dear wife waited for him to return home to his resident at the old Government Reserve Area (GRA) behind the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) but he never did. Especially to come to break his fast. Calls across to him were not answered equally because he was long dead unknown to them. Then anxiety mounted and the only place he told the family he was going to was the target office around the faculty of education. Sadly, the first strange observation that shocked them when they got to the campus was that his car wasn’t at the usual parking lot. Where else would he be if he is not there? He doesn’t even have any pass time other than morning exercise with his wife and he does that daily along the street that runs in front of the NUJ Borno State council leading up to the vice President’s mansion.
At the end of the search, “he was found sitting upright as his assailants kept him in his chair in his office” said a source. The murderers had left the campus undetected with his laptop computer, mobile phone and his car. Hours later, the Chief Security officer of the University was alerted and obviously the outgoing Vice Chancellor Professor Aliyu Shugaba whom i sympathize with so much for this strange tragedy coming just when he is about to hand over to the next Vice Chancellor.
An autopsy was conducted before the body was buried in the Islamic way and a manhunt for the killers started by the men of the Borno State Command of the Nigerian federal police. This is a clear case of security failure and which should cause some heads to roll.
Police first findings from the PPRO
The police described the incident as a case of “culpable homicide” but did not parade the security men they found in their investigations. They had actually arrested eight security men on duty for complicity in allowing the suspects in and out without observing that the owner of the car was not the one that returned with the same car now going out. That obviously was a big slip on the eagle eyes of the internal security who really did their best during the peak of the torment of boko haram insurgents on the ivy tower. I wonder what happened to them now. One begins to really wonder why they had to drop their guards at such a time.
But if they had intel devices at each gate in line with the uncompleted fence project of the Federal Government, the days of the killers would really be numbered by now.
Outlining the findings of the police, ASP Daso Nahum told newsmen that, “On the 1st April, 2024 at about 0630HRS, Chief Security Officer of University Of Maiduguri reported to Gwange Police Station that on the same date at about 0530HRS they discovered one Dr Kamal Abdulkadir a lecturer of Department of Physical and Health Education University of Maiduguri lying in his pool of blood. On receipt of the report, police detectives of Gwange police station and forensic experts from State Criminal Investigation Department visited the crime scene and found the victim lying dead with multiple stab wounds and injuries on the body. The victim’s mobile phone and vehicle one Honda Pilot with Reg NO. NGU232XG YOBE Golden Colour was carted away by the criminals; the body was taken to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital Maiduguri (UMTH) for autopsy. Eight suspects have been arrested while the case is still under discreet investigation.
The hospital had since concluded its post mortem on the body of the lecturer and his body buried at the Gwange cemetery. While the University community is still mourning with the family, it is obvious that this trauma will linger in the campus for a long time. Lecturers may begin to fix cctv to their offices to protect themselves especially when they are alone from such wicked attackers. So that such people will not cut their lives short while serving humanity through their various facilities. This really has sent a dangerous signal within the ranks of the Academic staff union of universities (ASUU).
Absence of advanced database of all Nigerians with forensic details a clog in such investigations
The sad aspect of such frightening murders is that unless there is a slip from one or two of the killers, there is no central fingerprint data base in the country to enable detectives sort out all the assailants who would have been caught cheaply. All forensic experts would have done was to copy all the prints within the crime scene and feed into the system and they would have been picked up one by one. That is one aspect of the technology we need in this country to crack the loopholes in cases like this. The finger print methodology is the best to catch criminals like this so the Federal Government should try and fix such a data bank as soon as we are done with the pending census program.
The earlier this is set up the better not only for the lifespan of our academics but any other professional who may be cut down in his prime in such a horrific manner.
