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Police defend killing of 12 youths in Kaduna
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
A DISCLOSURE came yesterday from the Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Mohammed Yesufu, that the 12 exhumed bodies at the Tundun Wada cemetery, Kaduna, were those of suspected armed robbers who were shot dead by the police as they tried to escape from cell.
Yesufu made this known at the sitting of the panel of inquiry set up to unveil the circumstances leading to the death of the recovered bodies.
According to Yesufu, the victims whom he mentioned their offences were shot as they attempted to escape while being taken to their individual cells.
The Commissioner of Police who gave evidence yesterday at the beginning of the probe held at the State House, Kawo, listed those killed as Sani Bako, Moses Okeke, Sule Shehu, Sani Haruna, Abubakar Umar, Ibrahim Ishaya, Lawrence Omaya, Garba Mohammed, Michael Ojo, Abdullahi Goshi, Ismaila Sani and Sale Ibrahim.
Yesufu argued that most of the culprits were confessed robbery suspects, rapists and highway robbers, from whom different categories of arms and ammunition were recovered. He also gave dates and offences that led to their arrests.
However, when asked if the force regularly en`gaged in extra-judicial killings, the Police Chief said such cases were rare.
Also, a mortuary attendant at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Malam Adamu Bagudu, told the panel the sorry situation of dead bodies deposited at the morgue. He said that on October 18, 2004, the police arrived with some 12 bodies, which were not received because there were already three decomposing bodies in the mortuary.
Bagudu pointed out that he assisted the police bury three decomposed bodies.
He added that the police did not provide money to embalm the corpses they deposited. "Police never gave money for embalment. We use our money to buy the soap we wash our hands with after handling corpses," he said.
Another witness, Malam Musa Abubakar, the Head of Cemetery attendants at the Bachama Road, Tundun Wada, said that what caused the trouble on the ill-fated day was the presence of police pick-up van that brought corpses to the burial ground. He added that they (cemetery attendants) had regularly handled bodies of those executed, hanged or accident victims.
According to him, the police did not follow the procedures for burial by procuring the necessary official documents from the local government area.
He further explained that the police brought 15 bodies, which were buried in two separate graves, stressing that "one for Christians and the other for Moslem suspects that were later exhumed."
Abubakar noted that it was the grave containing the 12 Moslem bodies that was exhumed, pointing out that two were later identified and taken away for proper burial by their relations.`
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