Murder on the rocks

How Jos businessman killed in cold blood by associates was exhumed after three months, reburied On the rocky hills along Maza, a remote suburb of Jos, officers of the police anti-kidnapping unit dragged a sack from under some rocks to a clearing. The sack contained all that was left of Abacha Yuguda, a businessman, who […]

• How Jos businessman killed in cold blood by associates was exhumed after three months, reburied

On the rocky hills along Maza, a remote suburb of Jos, officers of the police anti-kidnapping unit dragged a sack from under some rocks to a clearing.

The sack contained all that was left of Abacha Yuguda, a businessman, who was murdered three months earlier by his business associates and buried in a rocky grave on the hills so far from his children, who were waiting for him to return home.

The journey to that grim, heartbreaking moment on the hills began three months before when Yuguda left home on February 17.

Yuguda had bought some land in the Ari area and was invited to a business meeting by his agents where he was expected to have the land titles signed.

His wife, Khadija Isah, had no inkling that would be the last time she would see him.

“As usual, he was supposed to take the children to school that very morning,” she said.

“But he remembered that they had agreed to meet with his partners very early to grade the topography of a land that he wanted to divide into plots to sell to those who had already indicated interest and to get the land documents signed by the community leader of Ari.”

Yuguda got ready and as he was about to take his children to school and proceed to his meeting, his wife reminded him to say a prayer as usual before leaving.

He did, said goodbye to her and left. It was the last time she would see him alive.

“It was very uncommon for him not to call me throughout the day no matter how busy he was,” she said.

“Once it was 4 pm of every blessed day, he would call me to know of my whereabouts and how I was doing. But that day, he didn’t call.”

After realising that it was past his usual call time, she dialled his number but his phone was switched off.

She assumed his phone must have run out of power

“I waited until 7 pm but never heard from him. I then concluded something was wrong with my husband,” Khadija said.

Since it was not his habit to stay out late, the more time passed, the more alarmed Khadija and his other relatives became.

As the evening wore on and their anxiety increased, a call came through from her husband’s phone.

It was a stranger’s voice telling her that they had her husband and it would cost her two million naira in ransom to get him back.

When she demanded to speak to her husband, the caller told her it was not possible as he was saying his prayers.

He warned her not to call the authorities or even try to call back but to wait for his next call.

What she did not know at the time was it was not a kidnap but an attempt at extortion after the cold-blooded murder of her husband, who was already dead at the time of that call.

Khadija informed her husband’s family of the development but fearful for her husband’s safety, she dissuaded them from informing the police.

“Ten days after that conversation and nobody called with regards to the whereabouts of my husband, we then reported the matter to the Operation Safe Haven to assist us to investigate and unravel the perpetrators behind the disappearance of my husband,” she said.

Soon after the report, OPSH, a multi-security agency task force providing security in the troubled parts of Plateau State, began to investigate Yuguda’s disappearance.

They combed his call records and discovered he had been called by one Moses Samu on the morning of his disappearance.

Khadija confirmed that her husband had received several calls that morning.

Upon investigation, Moses confessed that Yuguda had already been murdered.

OPSH handed the suspect along with the case to the anti-kidnapping unit of the police and it was in their offices that Moses mentioned the name of another suspect, Sylvester Isha.

The two suspects would later be paraded by the police before journalists as being culpable in the murder of Abacha Yuguda.

The two suspects led the police to the hills in Maza to recover the corpse of Yuguda and confessed that a team of four men had conspired to murder the victim.

The gang of four was allegedly led by one Uweni Stephen.

“After Abacha was killed, we brought the body down from the hill and buried it,” Moses said.

“Though we owe him over N2m, he was killed purposely because of his sincerity in the land business.

“He has always been an obstacle to us in the business especially when we think we could get money.”

Apparently, Yuguda, would never agree to scam prospective land buyers or resell lands that have already been paid for to other clients.

His associates found this not to their liking.

The state police commissioner, Edward Chuka Egbuka, while parading the suspects said, “the anti-kidnapping unit of the command was detailed to carry out a discreet investigation on the matter.

“The suspect gave useful information that led to the arrest of one of his accomplices.

“In the course of interrogation, the suspects admitted committing the crime.”

According to the police commissioner, Uweni Stephen, still at large, had sold a piece of land to the victim and invited him to collect the property documents when they waylaid and murdered him.

“The suspects took the police to the hills where the victim was buried in a shallow grave, “ the commissioner said.

However, Khadija gave more details about her husband’s relationship with his suspected murderers.

She said the suspects worked as land agents for her husband and he often paid them commissions for any transaction they helped him secure.

“Ordinarily, when they have personal problems, they look to him for assistance which he always granted, including food items. It is a clear betrayal of trust,” she said.

Khadija said she has fond memories of her husband.

“He sacrificed his life for me and his children,” she said.

“For maintaining our marriage to the moment he departed, I am very confident that he would be in paradise because he never cheated me.”

For Habiba Musa, the death of her son, Abacha, who shouldered all her responsibilities is a great loss and she is unwilling to forgive the crime.

“I will not forgive the killers,” she said.

“I want them to be treated the way they treated my son. It would have been better if they had beaten him or asked us to give them something.

“We would have sold all his belongings to ensure he was not killed. This is an act of wickedness of the highest order.”

For his daughter, Habiba Yuguda, 13, she remembers how her father would admonish his children to be kind to each other and how he often encouraged them to read The Qur’an.

“I was saddened by the death of my dad considering how he was murdered,” she said.

“I am also happy that he had a glorious end because he was doing his legitimate business where he earned a living when he was killed. So, left to me, he has won but they lost.”

Habiba thanked the security agencies for getting to the root of the mystery and appealed to the judiciary to ensure that her late father got justice.