By Bodunrin Kayode in Maiduguri
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 a chicken, the way the Boko Haram terrorists used to treat human beings in the Hadin Kai war theatre, when Shekau held sway. It reminds 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 Education Department of the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, recently when assailants butchered him to death, in his office on 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, meaning what he was doing was very important in that quiet, location of the university 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 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 to him were also not answered because he was long dead.
Then anxiety mounted and the only place he told the family he was going to was the office.
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 was not there? He doesn’t even have any pastime other than morning exercises with his wife and he did that daily along the street that runs in front of the NUJ 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, 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 who deserves sympathy 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 and a manhunt for the killers began.
This was a clear case of security failure and which should cause some heads to roll.
Police First Findings by its Spokesman
The police described the incident as a case of “culpable homicide” but did paraded no one. 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 who came in was not the one leaving the campus with it. It obviously was a big slip on the part of the eagle-eyed men, sharpened at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency.
One wonders what happened to them, why they had to drop their guard 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: “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 the 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 has 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 on the campus for a long time. Lecturers may begin to fix CCTV cameras in their offices to protect themselves, especially when they are alone. The tragic event has sent a dangerous signal within the ranks of the Academic staff union of universities (ASUU).
Absence of Database on Fingerprints
The sad aspect of such frightening murders is that unless there is a slip from one or two of the killers, there appears to be no central fingerprint database 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 one of the the best ways to catch criminals. This is why 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 because of the lives of our academics but any other professional who may be cut down in his prime in such a horrific manner.