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•Say a suspect has confessed to plan 

•Disclose further investigation on-going

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Umar Sanda, has confirmed there were threats to the life of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara. Sanda disclosed that the command had arrested some persons in connection with the assassination plot, including a retired armourer, and one of the suspects had confessed to the crime.

The police commissioner said he had expanded investigation into the murder plot.

Dogara had in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, sought the intervention of the police headquarters in the investigation into threats to his life.

Speaking with journalists on Sunday, Sanda said a suspect confessed to procuring guns from the police armourers to kill Dogara and three others.

According to the police commissioner, “When we asked who gave him the guns and he confessed he wanted to sell it, we now asked him, is it our own rifles that you want to sell and he said, yes. We arrested him and started investigating him. In the course of our investigation, he implicated one person, whom they live in the same house with.

“In continuation of our investigations of the first person, he said it was someone in Tafawa Balewa, who approached him that he is looking for rifle to buy and that is what prompted him to carry that gun. When he gave us the name of the person, we went and arrested him.

“When we arrested him, he confessed to us that it is true that he is looking for rifle to buy, because something terrible happened to him, that his house alongside those of others were burned during the last December 2021 incident that occurred following the Baba Peter Gonto memorial anniversary.

“He mentioned names of some people, including that of the former Speaker, in connection to the incident, saying, that is the reason why he is looking for rifle to kill him (Dogara), and so, we launched an investigation to that regard. One thing with human being is, if he is guilty, he would not want to admit until you use wisdom, so we have intensified our investigation.”

Sanda also spoke on the issue of missing weapons from the police armoury.

He stated, “And on the missing rifle in our armoury, I directed that our armoury be audited and in the course of auditing, we discovered that apart from the two rifles we intercepted, some were not in the armoury and so we have expanded our investigation.

“Now that I am talking to you, our armoury officer, who retired two years ago, was arrested day before yesterday because we have been looking for him and now he is in our custody.

“We were still investigating and we saw that he has written to the IGP and is alleging that we didn’t call to inform him. I can tell you, if not because of what that man said, he would not discover any statement from another person that his life is at stake.”

Sanda added that apart from what the suspect said, he was looking for rifle to kill the former Speaker, no other suspect has corroborated his confession, saying, “we wouldn’t want to tell the world that this is that and that and at the end of the day, investigation reveals a different thing.

“And so, because of that, this thing is not right and the police is doing its job. We will complete our investigations and we are on it. By the grace of God, we will tell the world the outcome of the investigation once we are through with it; there is nothing to hide in it.”

Sanda stressed, “We have reached where we are in this matter due to our doggedness and resilience, if not, we would not have even known. So, it’s not the way he said it and we are hoping that the citizens will give us time to complete our investigation after which we will definitely make it known to the public, Insha Allahu.

“Even before now, we have informed the Force Headquarters about the matter and this issue that I am telling you about, if not because of the situation on ground, I am not supposed to tell the press until after we have completed our investigations.

“The letter indicated that we have not done anything seeing that his life has been exposed to danger, that’s not how it is.”

Responding to questions on Dogara’s petition to the IGP, the police commissioner said, “Yes, he is right, he has the right to petition the IGP, we are not saying it is wrong. But for him to say that the police did not do the needful or cautioned him that his life is in danger, we are yet to confirm the claim because it came from only one person and we have not found confirmation or corroboration that the threat from the other person is true.

“So, we have handed over the investigation to experts in handling armoury and murder investigators to do the proper thing. They are the ones to tell us that the threat to kill the former Speaker as confessed by the other suspect is true.

“They are the ones to tell us that so and so persons are involved and that’s when we will tell the world what transpired, even the former speaker himself, we have not reached to the point where we will seek information from him as to whether he has been facing threat to his life before the incident and then we will continue with our investigation up to its completion.”

Sanda added, “The former speaker talked about himself, one Barrister Bala Gambar, CAN Chairman Tafawa Balewa LGA, but on the confession of the other suspect, we have not gotten additional information from another person to confirm what is on ground.

“For those whose houses were burnt, we know them and he is among the ones we have arrested and if he said what he said, we must investigate. We have to ask him: why would you want to kill someone, because your house was burnt?

“And if we found him guilty, we will take him to court for prosecution and we will tell the world what has happened, but we will not just come out without completing our investigations to start telling the world about it. We wouldn’t have said anything if not because we saw that he has made public his letter. Notwithstanding, we will continue with our investigation until we’ll get to root of the matter, Insha Allah.”