According the Command’s spokesman Magaji Majia, some insurgents on motorcycles had at about 5.30pm the previous day attacked Kibiya police station.“On the spot, two of the sect members were killed and two others were arrested by the villagers. The remaining members ran towards Ningi road that leads to Bauchi State.”
Majia, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) announced, apparently to the relief of the people of the state, that the two insurgents arrested by the villagers had been handed over to them and were being interrogated.
Few hours after the police briefing, a call came from a lecturer in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. The caller told THISDAY that they haboured the fear that the police may have mistaken Ahmed Falaki, a professor of agriculture in ABU, for a Boko Haram member.
Said the caller,
“The police have announced that they killed two Boko Haram members on the Sumaila-Kimbiya road. We heard that Professor Falaki’s jeep was snatched on the same road by Boko Haram members at about the same time.”
The caller expressed fears that some inept policemen may have killed innocent Falaki and tagged him a Boko Haram kingpin.He added that the confusion in ABU was heightened by reports that Falaki’s Toyota SUV was abandoned by unknown persons in Burra, in neighbouring Bauchi State.
Shortly after the call, THISDAY contacted the Bauchi State Police spokesman Haruna Mohammed. The officer confirmed that his Command recovered a white Toyota Hilux SUV with ABU Institute of Agriculture inscribed on it. According to Mohammed, the vehicle was seized in neighbouring Kano State. He however said he couldn’t comment on the occupants of the recovered Toyota truck.
“All I can tell you is that our men recovered a white Toyota Hilux jeep believed to belong to Ahmadu Bello University. We don’t know who the occupants were or their whereabouts. That is all we know,”
The following day, a clearer picture of what happened emerged after THISDAY contacted Kano State Police Command PRO Majia. Tasked to comment on the allegation that the Boko Haram kingpin they killed was actually Professor Falaki, he became defensive. The police spokesman began by “correcting the impression that the men who attacked Kibiya police station were Boko Haram.” He said,
“Let us just assume they were gunmen.Some gunmen attacked a police station in Kibiya. During the exchange of gunfire, one of the gunmen was killed. The others escaped.”
He insisted that “the professor (Falaki) was attacked by a mob. “We tried to rescue him, but unfortunately he was killed before we got there. We were however able to rescue the person accompanying the professor. He has been taken to hospital for treatment,” explained the police spokesman.
Majia, however, failed to confirm the village where Falaki was allegedly killed, or if the police made any arrests. When THISDAY eventually got one of the professor’s children, he dismissed the police position as “a fairy tale and an afterthought.”
According to Falaki’s son, “our father had travelled to Yadagungume in Ningi LGA of Bauchi State. On the trip was his younger brother, Abbas, and his official driver.”
Falaki’s ordeal, said the son, began after his official Toyota Hilux SUV was seized by some gunmen suspected to be the same people who attacked Kibiya police station.
According to the son,
“Prof called about 6pm on Saturday that they had a flat tyre in Fala village in Tudun Wada LGA of Kano State. He, however, later assured that the tyre was being fixed and that they would soon hit the road.”
According to the son, it was shortly after fixing the vehicle that some gunmen on motorcycles sped past the professor.
“They turned back and pointed a gun at my father, his driver and brother. They demanded the key to the Hilux jeep. My father asked the driver to hand over the key. The gunmen now asked if the jeep had an immobilizer. The driver said ‘No.’
“Not convinced, the gunmen started the jeep and revved it for about five minutes. When the engine didn’t go off, they loaded their motorcycles and sped off.”
Culled from; THISDAY
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