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http://www.news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2158:sheik-jaafars-murder-shekarau-kano-emirate-freedom-radio-cleared&catid=46:lead-stories&Itemid=140 :
Sheik Ja’afar’s murder: Shekarau, Kano Emirate, Freedom Radio clearedWRITTEN BY MISBAHU BASHIR
Inspector General of Police
The police in Abuja yesterday said Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, the Kano Emirate Council and the Freedom Radio Kano have no case to answer on the murder of a prominent Kano based Islamic cleric, Sheik Ja’afar Mahmud Adam two years a ago.
Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of ‘D’ Department (Investigation) made the assertion at a press conference in Abuja. He said police investigation has revealed that Governor Shekarau, the Emirate Council and the Freedom Radio were not behind the killing of Sheik Ja’afar. “There is no iota of evidence of the involvement of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and the Kano Emirate Council in the killing of Sheik Ja’afar Adam. Again, Freedom Radio is not in any way linked to the murder of the late Sheik as the police have no evidence in that direction,” the IGP said.
He said the deceased was killed by four assailants while he was leading morning prayer at Dorayi Juma’at Mosque in Kano on April 13th 2007.
He said police investigation has revealed that prior to the death of the Sheik; he had received series of death threats from different quarters both written and verbal, including the receipt of a shroud (burial cloth). He said the threats were extended to his followers too. He said the Sheik was also alleged to have been attacked in June 2006 while preaching at Indimi Mosque in Maiduguri, Borno State.
“On April 18, 2007 police officers were detailed to uncover the identity of the murderers who have obtained statement from eye witnesses. Other relevant evidences such as expended empty shells of ammunition and copies of letters of complaints and threats to the Sheik’s life were recovered. The investigators also visited Sharada Divisional Police Headquarters, attacked by some unidentified armed men who killed two policemen and made away with some fire arms and ammunition on April 11th, 2007,” he said.
He said the police have arrested seven people including a Nigerien based on information received during investigation as prime suspects in the murder case. He said police detectives visited relevant towns and places, including Dakin-Gari in Kebbi State, the Embassy of Niger Republic in Abuja, Maiduguri and the headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS), Kano to ascertain claims that some suspects in the SSS custody who were arrested over an incident in Panshekara Kano, by a joint police and military team have confessed to the killing of the Sheik.
“The following facts emerged after painstaking investigation. (1) That the Sheik was attacked and killed at about 5:30pm on April 13th 2007 by gunmen at Almuntada Jumuat Mosque, Dorayi Kano while leading Morning Prayer. (2) During the attack on the Sheik, one Jamilu was killed while Abdullahi Abubakar and Malam Hamisu Mansur sustained bulled wounds. (3) Evidence eventually linked the killing of the Sheik to serial killings committed in Kano between April 1 and 17 2007, by some fundamentalists. It is our strong belief that these fundamentalists were likely to be among the killers of the Sheik because some of the arms stolen from the police station attacked were recovered from their hide out in a shootout with the joint military/police team during which 24 of them died,” he said. He said the suspects arrested in 2007 were released on bail in view of the fact that there was no evidence to prosecute them. The IGP said some time this year, there were some stories on the internet by the Sahara Reporters and the Desert Herald accusing the Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, his Aide de Camp (ADC) and the Kano Emirate Council of involvement in the killing of the Sheik. He said the internet publication alleged that one Tijjani Garba received the sum of N50 million from Kano State Governor in conspiracy with the Kano Emirate to kill the Sheik. He said the publication further claimed that the students of late Sheik Ja’afar jointly signed a document demanding the investigation of the allegations on the internet.
“The police investigated the matter during which all the personalities mentioned in the publication made written statements to the police investigation team led by a senior officer. The investigation revealed the following facts. (1) The internet publication was authored by a faceless writer, as the Islamic body alleged to have originated it dissociated itself from it completely. (2) All the signatories to the document who claimed to be students and sympathizers of late Sheik Ja’afar do not exist as efforts made to contact them yielded no positive results while none of them is known to the Usman bn Affan Islamic Trust of the late Sheik. (3) The alleged confessional statement by the faceless Tijjani Garba is a false document, as it bore no address and was neither on a police statement form nor endorsed by any police officer,” he said.
He said the characters referred to as Alhaji Abba Gana and Malam Tijjani Garba cannot be traced, pointing to the fact that the interned publication was sponsored merely to create an atmosphere of tension and chaos in Kano. He said for the purpose of emphasis, the nexus between the magazine of the berretta pistol recovered at the scene were late Ja’afar was killed and the berretta pistol without magazine recovered from the enclave at Panshekara Kano where the rampaging suspected fundamentalists were overpowered by the joint military and police team, strongly supports the interference that Sheik Ja’afar killers were among those killed by the joint military/police team at the fundamentalist’s enclave.
The IGP said the arrest of the Vice Chairman of Radio Freedom has nothing to do with the murder.
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