Attahiru Abubakar, who married his beloved wife on January 25, was murdered by officers of the FCT Police Command on Saturday.
Abass and Gadafeen Haruna, his brother and fellow resident, were injured on the leg and hands by bullets fired by the same trigger-happy operatives in Kuchibuyi Community in the Bwari Area Council.
The policemen who pulled the trigger kept quiet about it.
Kuchibuyi Community is just metres away from Grow Homes Estate, a small real estate company owned by Roland Aigbedion. FIJ learnt that Aigbedion went to the community on Saturday with some soldiers to take possession of a piece of land but community residents resisted him, insisting that the land belonged to them.
The soldiers left on Friday. The next day, Aigbedion returned and community youths barricaded the road, chanting that they were not going to allow an unlawful take-over of their land.
“Soldiers came with a surveyor and we initially thought it was the army that wanted to take our land again and we insisted that we would not allow them to take our land. This is not just land, habitable buildings have been built on it. It is our homeland and ancestral heritage. In short, it is where we live with our families. The soldiers clarified that they were only protecting someone who was allocated land in our community,” said Bashiru Abubakar, the deceased’s elder brother.
“We also asked them how they could take our land without any prior notice to us, the indigenes. When the Nigerian Army was given a portion of land in our community recently, they came and met with local leaders and community youth. The discussion was productive, we expressed our concerns and they addressed it and they took the land without any issue.”
FIJ learnt that Aigbedion had previously benefitted from land allocations in the community. However, the portion he was attempting to possess had houses where families lived in.
The residents saw Aigbedion’s attempt to claim the land as an automatic displacement of those families from their homes. Hence, the resistance.
“His return on Saturday dismayed us but we maintained calm and took him and his team to Aliyu Hakimi, our traditional leader. We asked them to show us their layout and the allocation documents issued to them by the FCDA [referring to the Federal Capital Development Authority]. We were in this discussion for more than one hour and they failed to provide proof of their allocation,” Bashiru told FIJ.
“We never knew they had messaged the police at Byazhin Police Station. When we got wind of their arrival, we told our community chairman, youth leader and others not to let Aigbedion and his people go. We then left the palace to stop the police from entering the community.”
FCT Police Public Relations Officer Josephine Adeh stated that the officers were in the community after receiving “a distress call regarding a civil unrest incident stemming from a land dispute at Kuchibuyi Community under Byazin Division”.
Bashiru said that the young men told the police that their presence was unwanted and they would not be allowed entry into the community.
After some verbal exchange, the police began to use force. They bombarded the youths with tear gas.
“We barricaded the road and the police started beating us with their belts and bombarding us with tear gas. Some of us started stoning them and some ran away,” said Bashiru.
“The police picked my dad, who is the Chief Imam of Kuchibuyi, and started beating him. It was at that point that my brother came back from the farm and asked the police why they were beating him.”
POLICE KILLED ABUBAKAR, LEFT BULLETS IN ABASS AND HARUNA
The police hurt the community by killing Abubakar, forcing his family to mourn his death at the age of 28, only some months into his marriage.
“An officer shot him in the chest. At a very close range. He was close to trying to stop them from beating my dad,” said Bashiru. “He died on the spot. His blood littered the ground. Our sorrow was visible in the community.”
Bashiru said that, given the way they shot at others, it would not be far-fetched to think the police intended to kill more than the deceased.
“Not only did they kill my younger brother, they also shot Abass, my senior brother, on his hands and Haruna, another community resident, in the leg,” Bashiru explained.
“We took the injured to the hospital. Health workers removed three bullets from Abass’s hands and one from Haruna’s leg.”
Despite quoting Commissioner of Police Ajao Adewale as condemning “the actions of youths attacking police officers who were on a mission to restore law and order”, FCT police spokesperson Adeh failed to mention that her colleagues actually murdered someone and left others with bullet wounds.
Bashiru said that communities were usually informed by the FCDA whenever land was allocated within the FCT. In the case involving Aigbedion, Bashiru said, there was no communication from the authorities.
When asked whether the land belonged to the FCDA or it was subject to litigation, Bashiru said no. “It is our village land. It is where we live and do business. We have never had any complaint to the FCDA that anybody wanted to seize our land.”
FIVE ARRESTED
On Saturday, the police arrested five persons and kept them in detention indefinitely.
Adeh also confirmed in her official statement that some people had been arrested. She failed to name the detained individuals.
According to Bashiru, the arrested five were Abdallah Abubakar, Sunday Stephen, Tijani Haruna, Saater and Jashua.
“The Divisional Police Officers of Byazin and Kubwa swiftly mobilised to the scene and brought the situation under control,” Adeh wrote. “Arrests have been made, and the investigation is currently ongoing.”
“It is important to clarify that the issue is a communal dispute and not in any way related to the police.”
‘POLICE UNAWARE OF ANY KILLING. OFFICERS ATTACKED UNPROVOKED‘
Speaking to FIJ on the phone on Tuesday, the police spokesperson said that she was unaware of any killing in the community.
“I am not aware. It is what I am aware of that my statement [referring to the reported statement] read,” Adeh said.
“If there was any killing, they should come and report to us so that we could find out what it is,” she added.
“We went there to respond to a distress call and the youths became violent. They called us to restore order and the youth attacked us unprovoked.
“The commissioner of police has said that the police would not tolerate any attack on an officer. My statement stated what happened that day.”
Maintaining that she did not know about the death of Abubakar, Adeh said, “I don’t know about any killing.”
Adeh shared a video showing some youths, holding long sticks and cutlasses, attacking armed police officers and their vehicles. The clip showed how the officers tried in vain to calm the aggressive youths.
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