Alleged threat to Ex-Speaker Dogara’s life: Investigation ongoing, says Bauchi CP

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By Samuel Luka, Bauchi

The Bauchi state Police command has disclosed that investigation is ongoing over assassination alarm raised by the former speaker of the house of representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara.

The commissioner of Police in the state, Umar Mamman Sanda made this known on Sunday while reacting to the former speaker’s petition to the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba, alleging plot by some people to kill him.

The CP said part of the allegations that Bauchi State Police did not do anything on the matter was not true, adding that has commenced discreet investigation into the incident.

Speaking in an audio in Hausa the CP said, “What happened is that, we received discreet information that there are some of our officers, one of our Police Officers was attempting to sell a rifle, so we went after him”.

According to CP Sanda, “initially we have received prior information that he was carrying the rifles inside his car, we went after him, we got him and asked about the owner of the car and he said he is the owner, we searched the car and we discovered the guns”.

“When we enquired to know the person that gave him the guns what he intends to do with them, he confessed that he wanted to sell it, we now asked him, is it our own rifles that you want to sell? and he said yes, we arrested him and started investigating him”, the CP further explained.

The Police Commissioner said in the cause of investigation, the suspect implicated one other person, added that in continuation of investigation of the first person.

“On continuation of our investigation, he said it was someone in Tafawa Balewa who approached him that he is looking for rifle to buy and that is what prompted him to carry that guns. When he mentioned the name of the person, we went and arrested him”, he added.

Umar Sanda narrated further that, “when we arrested him, he confessed to us that it is true that he is looking for rifle to buy because something terrible happened to him, that his house and those of others were burned during the last December 2021 incident that occurred following the Baba Peter Gonto memorial anniversary”.

The CP further said the suspect mentioned names of some people, including that of the former Speaker in connection to the incident, (burning of their houses) which he attributed to the reason behind his plot against the former speaker.

“We have launched an investigation to that regard”. One thing with human being is, if he is guilty, he would not want to admit until you use wisdom, so we have intensified our investigations”, CP Sanda said.

“And on the missing rifle in our armory, I directed that our armory be audited and in the cause of auditing, we discovered that apart from the two rifles we intercepted, some were not in the armory and so we have expanded our investigations”, the CP further said.

According to him, “Now that I am talking to you, our armory officer who retired two years ago was arrested day before yesterday because we have been looking for him and now he is in our custody”.

He however said that, “We were still investigating and we saw that he has written to the IGP and is alleging that we didn’t call to inform him. I can tell you, if not because of what that man said, he would not discover any statement from another person that his life is at stake”.

The Commissioner of Police added that apart from what the man said, that he was looking for rifle to kill the former Speaker, no other suspect has corroborated his confession, adding that the police would not want to start giving information to people while it has not completed its investigation.

“The Police is doing its job, we will complete our investigations and we are on it, by the grace of God we will tell the world the outcome of the investigation once we are through with it, there is nothing to hide in it”, he assured.

He said that the state command has reached where it is now on the matter due to its doggedness and resilience, expressing hope that the citizens will give the police us time to complete its investigation.

“After we complete our investigation, we will definitely made it known to the public in Sha Allahu”. Even before now, we have informed the Force Headquarters about the matter and this issue that I am telling you about, if not because of the situation on ground I am not supposed to tell you until after we complete our investigations”, the CP said.

“The letter indicated that we have not done anything seeing that his life has been exposed to danger, that’s not how it is”.

CP Umar Mamman Sanda who acknowledged that the former speaker has the right to petition the IGP, added that, “we are not saying it is wrong but for him to say that the Police did not do the needful or cautioned him that his life is in danger is not how it should be, we are yet to confirm the claim because it came from only one person and we have not found confirmation or corroboration that the threat is true”.

“So, we have handed over the investigation to experts in handling armory and murder investigators to do the proper thing, they are the ones to tell us that the threat to kill the former Speaker as confessed by the other suspect is true”, he added.

The CP said that the experts engaged are the ones to verify the claims by the suspect before the police will tell the world what actually transpired, adding in the course of investigation, the police is yet to reach to a point where they seek information from the former speaker.

even the former Speaker himself, we have not reached to the point where we will seek for information from him as to whether he has been facing threat to his life before the incident and then we will continue with our investigation up to its completion”.

“The former Speaker talked about himself, one Barrister Bala Gambar, CAN Chairman Tafawa Balewa LGA, but on the confession of the other suspect we have not gotten additional information from another person to confirm what is on ground”, he said.

“For those that got their house burnt, we know them and he is among them, the one we have arrested and if he said what he said, we must investigate, we have to ask him, why would you want to kill someone because your house was burnt?”, he further said.

The Police Commissioner assured that any of the suspects found guilty after the completion of investigation would be charged to court accordingly and the police will inform the world about what really happened.

“But we will not just come out without completing our investigations to start telling the world about it, we wouldn’t have said anything if not because we saw that he has made his letter public. However, we will continue with our investigations until we get to root of the matter in Sha Allahu”, the CP vowed.