For Sadiq Abubakar Ibrahim, the year 2020 will not only be remembered as
the year COVID-19 pandemic put the whole world on the edge, but it will
also be remembered as a year he narrowly escaped death in the hands of
the Nigeria Police.
On May 18, Sadiq, a teenage son of Engr Abubakar Yaro Ibrahim, a former
Sole Administrator of the National Iron Mining Company, Itakpe, was
allegedly shot in the hand by an operative of the police force with
Special Tactical Squad (STS) of the Office of the Inspector General of
Police (IGP).
The yet-to-be-identified operative would later be quoted to have
allegedly told the semi-conscious Sadiq to count himself lucky that the
bullet missed him on the head where it was targeted.
In a chat with Daily Trust on Sunday, Sadiq’s father, Engr Ibrahim, said his son was lucky to be alive.
“He is getting better. But he is still in the hospital. Two surgeons – a
plastic surgeon and an orthopaedic, operated on him for almost eight
hours.
Engr. Ibrahim, who is currently a visiting lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello
University, said his son, a student of School of Basic & Remedial
Studies (ABU) Funtua, was shot in his right hand. “They cracked one of
the bones around his wrist,” he added.
In an earlier interview he granted PRNigeria, Ibrahim, narrated the incidents leading to the shooting of his son.
He said on the day of the incident, he was preparing to join other
members of his family to perform the afternoon prayer (Salatul Zuhr) at
about 12.45pm, when the personnel of the STS, who he initially thought
were armed robbers, stormed his house.
“I heard several gunshots, and some strange people shouting at the top
of their voices at members of my family, while some other people were
banging doors, trying to forcibly gain entrance into the house through
other doors.
“I rushed downstairs to the main living room of the house to know
exactly what was happening and to my greatest dismay I found members of
my family laying down on the floor of the living room with their faces
down and several armed men were standing keeping watch over them,
threatening to shoot anyone that may attempt to run away.”
He said: “They did not enter my house through the main door, in spite of
the fact that it was not locked. They instead jumped over the fence
between my house and that of my immediate next-door neighbour.
“My son, Sadiq, was performing ablution when they entered the home by
jumping over the fence between my house and that of my neighbour; this
very manner of entering the house greatly frightened him.
“More so, that one of the operatives pointed a gun at him and pursued
him trying to kill him. Sadiq actually assumed they were armed robbers
when he saw them. The particular person that shot him had a hairstyle
that is not befitting responsible people, making the boy believe they
were armed robbers. None of the officers wore protective gear which they
normally wear when they are on such operation.
“This cast doubt on the motive of the mission of the STS team.
“The same officer who shot Sadiq told my wife, who at that time they
entered our compound was in the kitchen preparing food for children, to
open the kitchen door or be shot. One of the children advised her to
open for him and she did. But for that invention by the child it could
have been a different story. The shock and trauma we were subjected to
caused another son of mine to collapse at the interrogation venue. The
STS operatives had disgraced us as a family by treating us like
criminals without the slightest justification for that.”
On the reason for the raid, Eng. Ibrahim said he later found out at the
STS Office at Guzape, Abuja, where they were taken for interrogation
that it was connected to a case of kidnapping.
“At the venue of interrogation, we were each asked to make a statement,
and it was while we were doing so, that it became evident that they were
trying to link us up with a kidnap case. According to them, a Nigerian
Army major and one or two other people were recently kidnapped in Kogi
State, and the kidnappers demanded a huge ransom before they could be
released.
“According to them, they were trying to track the kidnappers when they
arrived at a spot (near my house, but on the road which passes in front
of it) as the location of the kidnappers when they were last contacted.
“They claimed that the kidnappers asked them to take the ransom to that
spot which they automatically assumed to be part of my house,” he said.
On whether the police, who he said abandoned Sadiq in the hospital, had
made any contact with him since the incident, Ibrahim told Daily Trust
on Sunday that they called one of his sons, who in the heat of the
moment, told them not to bother.
He, however, said mobile phones and a laptop collected from his family
members, his driver and neighbours by the police since the incident have
not been returned. He said he has briefed his lawyer and they are
considering a lawsuit against the police.
Efforts to get an update from a spokesman of the police, DCP Frank Mba,
was unsuccessful. Several calls to his phone did not connect; however, a
text message to him was marked delivered but not responded to.
