Facts have emerged on how the late army colonel, Samaila Inusa, was abducted and later killed by unknown gunmen in Kaduna State.
Inusa, 44, who was recently posted to the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji near Kaduna, as Chief Instructor was abducted by unknown gunmen on the night of Saturday, March 26, along Kamazo, along Kaduna Refinery Road, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He was said to be returning from a festive visit to his in-laws.
Our correspondent gathered that the corpse was first sighted a few kilometres away from the spot he was abducted by three children who had gone to the bush to pluck cashew nut.
The children, on sighting the corpse, had rushed back to the village to inform the community elders. On confirmation, the elders relayed the news to the village head who then alerted the Nigeria Police in the area.
The police then informed the army authority, which came, identified and claimed the body of the senior officer, as no identification card was found on him. The body of the slain officer was deposited at the 44 Army Reference Hospital that same day.
Last Wednesday, March 30, the remains of the late Inusa were buried at the old Nigerian Defence Academy Cemetery, Kaduna State.
Our correspondent gathered that the yet-to-be-identified gunmen had trailed Inusa’s car for a period before he was abducted and taken to an unknown location.
A source, who spoken on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter, told our correspondent that the couple — Inusa and his wife, Grace — had set out of their official residence at Dalet Barracks, located within the Headquarters of the One Mechanised Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna to visit the family home of the wife at Kamanzo, also in Chikun Local Government Area of the state.
The source said the late Inusa’s wife, who was said to be driving a Mercedes Benz GLK, had suspected they were being trailed.
The source further said by the time the couple ended their visit and was set to drive off, the two vehicles with armed men had blocked Inusa’s car.
“They ordered that the wife disembark from the car and make away with the car and the husband,” the source said.
A statement signed by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said, “Preliminary investigation revealed that, most likely, the late senior officer was killed the same day he was kidnapped by his abductors. This is because the body was found already decomposing around Ajyaita village, off Eastern Bypass Kaduna, Kaduna State. We wish to state in unmistakable terms that whoever is behind his abduction and murder would be fished out to face the full wrath of the law.”
Inusa was killed just a few weeks after the abduction of three clerics from the HEKAN church. The President of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria, Rev. Emmanuel Dziggau, Rev. Yakubu Dzarma and Rev. Iliya Anto were abducted on March 21 along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway where they had gone to clear a piece of land for the foundation of the church seminary.
However, while Dziggau and Dzarma regained their freedom after 10 days in captivity, Anto, who was also the HEKAN Vice-President, was found dead.
At the burial of Inusa, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, who was represented by the Nigerian Army Chief of Administration, Maj-Gen. Ado Abubakar, described the late officer as “a gallant and professional soldier.”
Buratai said the army would hunt down and fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act and they would be made to face the full weight of the laws of the land.
He said, “Col. Inusa was a great soldier. We all feel the pains. Though death is inevitable and nobody can run away from it. I came in to represent my boss, the Chief of Army, because the Nigerian Army is mourning the death of one of us that has really served this country greatly and we are not really happy the way he died.”
Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji, Maj-Gen. Kasim Abdulkarim, described Inusa’s death as a painful one to his family, the Nigerian Army and the entire country.
He said, “I feel very bad because the officer was directly under me. He was a loyal, committed and hard-working officer.”
The slain soldier was said to have been at the forefront of the battle against Boko Haram insurgents that had wreaked havoc on the people of the North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe as well as other parts of the North.
At his graveside, our correspondent observed sympathisers asking if the late colonel was a target for the Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky-led Islamic Movement of Nigeria, otherwise known as the ‘Shiite’ movement.
However, the IMN has since reacted to the allegation, denying any alleged involvement in the abduction and the subsequent killing of the late Inusa.
A terse statement by the Shiites’ spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a false, unsubstantiated and mischievous claim that looks more like a planned operation aimed at painting the Islamic Movement in Nigeria black of some ‘intelligence’ report that the IMN may have planned kidnap of military officers for ransom for the release of our revered leader, His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.
“We wish to categorically state here that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, under the leadership of His Eminence, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, has never, is not and will never engage in any form of crime to meet any of its objectives. Crime and criminal activities are fundamentally sinful and are not in our character.”
The slain Inusa was born in 1972 at the Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.
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