Nigeria: 'We Watched As Armed Men Killed Our Father'
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Daily Trust (Abuja)
6 September 2008
Posted to the web 6 September 2008
Shehu Abubakar
Gusau
The murder recently of the District Head of Garin Magani in Kauran-Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara State is one of the worst episodes known to the people of the area in recent times even as the cause of his murder is still a mystery.
The District Head of Garin Magaji, Alhaji Abubakar Maiyawo Dantoro, is one man who was many things to so many people within and outside his district which explains why his death recently left almost everybody in the area mourning.
One of the children of the district head, Mansur Dantoro, 17, who watched as his father was being beaten to death by the armed men, described the incident as the most horrible incident he can ever imagine in his life.
Mansur, who could not hold back his tears as he narrated how his father was murdered by the gang of over ten armed men who stormed the district head's palace at Garin Magani around 2.34am, said it was the highest case of cruelty one can imagine.
He said he was lying down outside the palace with the watchmen when he heard their dog barking in an unusual manner. Suddenly, Mansur heard the footsteps of people approaching the palace chanting war songs.
"I ran into the palace and went straight to my grandmother's apartment. I tried to wake the watchman but he was asleep. Not long after that, I heard the assailants telling the watchman to take them to where our father was.
"I heard the watchman saying he cannot take them to him even if they would kill him. Suddenly, I heard them beating the watchman. It was after they killed him that they came into the palace calling our father's name 'Dantoro, come out you have strangers'," they said.
Mansur said their father opened his door and came out of the house and told them to enter his room.
"At that stage, I also came out and saw them in a large number. I am sure they were more than 10. My father asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted money. My father asked them to follow him to where he parked his car. I also followed them.
"I helped my father removed the cloth he used to cover the car. He opened the boot of the car and brought out one million naira and gave them. They collected it and said they needed more money. He asked them to follow him into the house and that he will give them more money but they refused.
"He gave them the keys to his car and told them to go with it but they told him that 'look, we are here to kill you'. He said okay, 'if you must kill me; please kill me inside my house.' They followed him back to the house. On getting into the palace, he requested to see his wives but they had all ran away," he said.
Mansur said at that point, the father asked the children to come close to him and they went. He said the father cautioned them to be God fearing and to live in peace with all the people around them.
"He told us to ensure that we go to school and assist the needy and be generous to the people who live around us.
"It was at that point one of them hit him with a heavy stick so hard on his back. Immediately they hit him, he said 'Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raju'un' (from Allah we come and to Him we shall all go back). They all started hitting him until he could not even shake. We were all crying but they were laughing.
"They used his torch light to light his face and they were laughing saying they have finished with him. They kept the torch light near him and took away the money and left. They were all speaking in our Zamfara type of Hausa," he said. Mansur said whoever were the killers of his father were people from the neighbourhood whom he said may have been nursing grudges against him.
But Hajiya Safiya Dantoro, the senior wife of the late district head, said the killers of her husband are people living with them in the same area who have been arrested and released by the police investigating the murder.
"Police investigation has not been fair to us. We are aware that the police have arrested the prime suspects in the murder of my husband but they released them. There was a young man from Nagigiya village (name withheld) who has been saying that he must kill Dantoro.
"It is a known fact that the man has been saying it publicly that he must kill him. Elders have been cautioning him over that assertion; the police arrested and released him because we have nobody to stand for us. God will take control," she said. Hajiya Safiya said crisis between Dantoro and the young man started when the district head divorced one of his wives and the boy insisted that he must marry her.
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The soft spoken woman said she is not unaware of the fact that some people are attributing the cause of the death to the fact that he was a generous man who gave so many people loans without proper documentation.
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