Professor Ahmad Falaki’s murder

was returning to his station from a visit to Yada-Gungume village in the Ningi local government area Bauchi State, when he asked the driver of the vehicle he was travelling in with his brother to stop and change an apparently faulty tyre.  In the course of doing that on the road between Bauchi and Kano […]

was returning to his station from a visit to Yada-Gungume village in the Ningi local government area Bauchi State, when he asked the driver of the vehicle he was travelling in with his brother to stop and change an apparently faulty tyre.  In the course of doing that on the road between Bauchi and Kano states, some persons riding on motorcycles descended upon them and demanded that the vehicle’s key be handed over to them.  Sensing trouble, Professor Falaki asked the driver to oblige them. The motorcycle riders sped away with the Hilux truck, abandoning their motorcycles on the scene. Villagers quickly gathered around to offer their sympathies.
Professor Falaki called one of his wives, Rukayyah, and briefed her of the encounter, assuring her in the process that he and the rest of the team were fine and would find alternative means to return home; so she should not be unduly worried.
Suddenly, a team of policemen appeared on the scene; the policemen began asking questions regarding the abandoned motorcycles; Professor began to identify himself. The policemen responded with bursts of gunshots. Professor Falaki lay dead.
The police in Kano released a statement saying that some suspected Boko Haram members had attacked the Divisional Police Station in Kibiya local government area of the state. The police spokesperson, ASP Magaji Musa Majiya, said the police successfully repelled the attack and that local vigilantes had gunned down one of the insurgents and arrested two others.
As the bravery of the locals was being told, the day’s event turned out to be a grim case of murder.  The Kano police sought to clarify their statement, by saying that Falaki’s death was a case of lynching by a mob. As Majiya was making his clarification, the Bauchi State police command issued its own statement on the issue, asserting that its personnel had arrested two persons suspected to be armed robbers, and that they had confessed to killing Professor Falaki.
 That assertion couldn’t withstand Rukayyah’s recounting of the conversation she had with her husband when he called her to brief her of the encounter with the car-snatching bikers .The late Professor’s brother, Abbas Mustapha and the driver, made statements that corroborated Rukayyah’s that said her husband also told her that the gunmen did not harm them; they only took the truck.
 Abbas said that Professor Falaki identified himself to the policemen who came upon them on the scene. For some reasons, they shot him.  
In the narration of this otherwise tragic incident, the police have come out poorly indeed, seeming to be quick on the draw, and only asking questions later.  
It is proper that Professor Falaki’s family has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, describing his killing as extra judicial and pointing accusing fingers at the police. It is distressing that police personnel do not abide by the legal principle that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. In cases where there is incriminating evidence against a suspect, the police have no right under any circumstance to kill a citizen who, as in Professor Falaki’s case, is unarmed. Even the campaign to root out insurgents must be done in accordance with extant rules of engagement. The barbarism that the police have displayed in this particular case is inexcusable.
The police authorities have launched an inquiry into Falaki’s gruesome murder by those who should have protected him. That inquiry should be transparent and be aimed at achieving justice for the family of Professor Falaki and ensuring that such episode never recurs.