Victims of Drug War
By Sam Adzegeh, Kaduna Bureau
Monday, November 08, 2004
Five officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, killed in strange circumstances in Kano while trailing a suspected drug baron
Security agencies in Kano State have mounted an intense investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and three others. The names of the five officers are Sunday Aina, Hassan Umar and Yakubu Mohammed. Two other names were simply given as Maji and Sanchi.
The five persons met their deaths in Kabo town, Kano State while on the trail of a notorious drug baron. While the circumstances which led to their deaths remained unclear, Newswatch learnt in Kano that the five NDLEA officials had intercepted an unnamed suspect with large quantities of Indian hemp and Diazeparm, otherwise known as valium. The suspect, who was arrested at Yelwa Danza village in the Bichi area, had on interrogation disclosed the major source of his and other couriers' supplies to be one Yunusa Liti, a resident of Kabo town. Liti was not new to the NDLEA. He had at least on one previous occasion been arrested in connection with hard drugs, but was let off after being detained for sometime and paying a fine.
Knowing the crafty nature of their quarry, the NDLEA team planned their raid on Liti's residence for the early hours of Friday, October 29. At 2 am that morning, the agents, accompanied by two informants and the suspect who had fingered Liti, arrived Kabo town and had headed for Liti's residence. While three of the officers who were in uniform and fully armed with automatic pistols headed for Liti's house with the handcuffed suspect, the two other officers waited in the NDLEA vehicle with the two informants. Newswatch learnt at the NDLEA headquarters in Kano that splitting the team into two was standard procedure, with the second team standing by to provide reinforcement for the first if need arises.
Taken by surprise, Liti easily succumbed and was arrested. But while being led out of his house, he suddenly started screaming, "Barayi! Barayi! Za su kashe ni!" meaning, "Thieves! They want to kill me!"
Being the fasting period most people in the mostly Moslem town were already up at that time of the morning preparing their breakfast before the commencement of fasting at 6 am. Thus there was an immediate response to Liti's calls with a large number of people pouring into the streets armed with machetes, axes, daggers and other crude weapons.
Though armed, the NDLEA officials were said to have been completely taken by surprise. Besides, the mob was too large for them to handle. It has also been suggested that they were confident that, being in uniform and on an official assignment, that they could explain to the town's residents that they were not armed robbers. Unknown to the agents, however, a robbery incident had recently occurred in the town, and so the irate mob, on seeing Liti in the middle of strange persons, did not ask for explanation. They attacked the agents as well as the handcuffed civilian, hacking them with cutlasses and axes.
Hearing the noise, the back-up team was in the process of coming to investigate when the mob also descended on them, mercilessly cutting them on all and every parts of their bodies. Two of the agents, however, managed to make it to a nearby police station with the mob hot on their trails. But at that time 'of the morning, there were few police officers on duty. The mob was said to have threatened to set the station on fire and kill the police officers if they did not release the duo to it. Faced with a mob that had already tasted blood and was itching for more, the police personnel was forced to release the NDLEA officials to it to preserve their own lives. The mob immediately hacked them to pieces, killing them instantly.
Newswatch learnt that four of the dead agents, who were Moslems were buried according to Islamic rites immediately after while Aina was buried in Kwara State on Sunday October 31. Tragically, Aina had concluded arrangements for his wedding which was scheduled for Saturday, November 13.
Newswatch also gathered that Maji had also concluded plans to get transferred to Abuja, where he had already relocated his family. His colleagues told Newswatch that he had suffered serious casualties during the recent Kano crisis and was bent on leaving the volatile state. Sanchi's death also leaves one of his wives with a three-month-old baby.
Beyond these touching personal tragedies the deaths of the agents have stirred up controversy, with some police officers casting doubts on the nature of assignment embarked upon by the drug law enforcers. There is the feeling in police circles that the officers were on a private run to extort money from the drug baron. There is also the argument that the agents did not report their presence in the vicinity to the divisional police. "It is standard procedure that they inform us that they are mounting an operation in our area. This enables us to provide a back-up squad for them," one police officer told Newswatch in Kano. He said on this occasion, the NDLEA team failed to do this.
Officers of the NDLEA, however, told Newswatch that it was not a compulsory requirement. One officer who pleaded anonymity told Newswatch that previous experience had shown that any information given to the police concerning a pending operation had an uncanny way of finding itself to the target. "By the time we would get there, the person would have disappeared.
Inspite of such animosities, the two security forces are maintaining a united front to get to the root of the problem. "We are not blaming the police officers for their deaths," a top NDLEA operative told Newswatch. "They were only protecting their own lives, which is normal." The source, who pleaded anonymity also debunked claims that the officers could have been on a shady operation, saying the operation had been fully approved by the state headquarters.
Ganiyu Dawodu, Kano State police commissioner who confirmed the incident to Newswatch, however said there was still not much known about the case as at last week. He disclosed that the command has arrested a few people in connection with the incident while two more have been declared wanted. "We will do anything possible to make sure we get to the truth behind this unfortunate incident, he said. Anybody found culpable will be brought to book and made to face the full wrath of the law," he promised.
When Newswatch called at the Kano State headquarters of the agency, a funeral atmosphere pervaded the area. The few officers present wore long, grieving faces. The state commander as well as several high-ranking officers were said to be away on an assignment in Jos, Plateau State.
Bello Lafiaji, Chairman of the NDLEA appeared to be taking the situation calmly and philosophically. Lafiaji who immediately moved to Kano after the incident, told Newswatch that he was fully briefed on the incident. The chairman described the incident as an "occupational hazard" which he said was a common trend among crime fighters all over the world, adding that his agency was in total cooperation with the police. He said his director of investigation was working hand in hand with police authorities on the incident. "So far, he has not got back to me with a full briefing, so there is not much I can say for now. The investigation is still going on."
Lafiaji, however, confirmed that the dead officers' assignment had been an official engagement backed up with full logistics support. It was for this reason, he said, that the officers' survivors would benefit from the agency's welfare scheme while they will also be considered for the NDLEA Hall of Fame. "We also have an arrangement where the child of any of our officers who died on official assignment is given an automatic option of joining the agency if he or she so wishes," he disclosed.
Police sources told Newswatch that in their statements, those arrested have admitted the attacks but had insisted that the victims were armed robbers. Newswatch also gathered that NDLEA officials have, on their part, contacted both the Galadiman Kano and the village head in Kabo to help in tracking down all those who participated in the massacre. "We want to give them some time to see what they will do before we go into full action," a top officer of the agency confided to Newswatch
Newswatch learnt that the NDLEA response could be a sustained crackdown on the Kabo area. Agency operations told Newswatch that Kabo is a well-known drug enclave in the state, a development which has made the place highly volatile. "It is this drug induced volatility that resulted in the inability to hold local government elections there," an NDLEA source told Newswatch.
Another alternative being considered by the NDLEA is to put pressure on the Federal government to send soldiers to Kabo to force the residents to bring out those who killed the agents.
