• Neighbours eulogise deceased carpenter, seek perpetrators’ arrest
From Abubakar Yakubu, Abuja
For Abdullahi Suleiman, a carpenter and father of seven children, with a wife whose pregnancy is at the advanced stages, Tuesday, January 2, seemed like any normal day. There was no premonition that evil lurked somewhere in the corner.
•Wisdom Supermarket at One Man Village, Nasarawa State
Unfortunately, he did not live to see the end of the day. He was shot dead, alongside three others, at a shopping mall
Musa Ishaq, his neighbour, narrated what happened on that fateful day.
•Late Suleiman
According to him, the deceased woke up to perform the Subhr prayers in the morning before going round to greet neighbours as he normally did. He then proceeded to the wash room. Afterwards, he left with his younger brother, Saidu Hamisu for his workshop at Kugbo Furniture, after Karu Bridge in Abuja.
Ishaq said Suleiman’s younger brother revealed that they were both hungry while returning from the workshop in the evening and Suleiman dropped his brother near their house at One Man Village in Nasarawa State. He then informed the younger brother that he was going to the Wisdom Supermarket, close to the house, to buy bread and yoghurt.
“His younger brother tried to persuade him to allow them go home first to eat, assuring that he, the younger brother, would run the errand later. But Suleiman asked the younger brother to go in. He then drove himself to the supermarket,” the neighbour said.
He said after some minutes, they learnt of a robbery at the supermarket and rushed down there. They later went to Mararaba Medical Centre where they saw Suleiman’s corpse. Ishaq said relatives of the deceased person later moved the body from the hospital at 2am that day to Ankpa in Kogi State for burial.
Ishaq, who was in a sorrowful mood, described Suleiman as a peaceful and generous person.
“Since I became his neighbour about four or five months ago, I have never had a sad encounter with him and whenever he didn’t see me around, he would place a call to me to find out if I was all right”, the neighbour said, adding that whenever the deceased returned home with goodies for his children, he would extend same to his (Ishaq’s) own children.
“In this compound, our electricity bill is huge and Suleiman always takes responsibility in paying the bill first and other tenants would pay him later when they have money,” he added.
He prayed to God to send a helper to assist Suleiman’s wife as she is left with the responsibility of catering for seven children (five males and two females), noting that the second born is currently a polytechnic student.
The deceased person’s younger brother, Saidu Hamisu, while narrating his last moment with his brother, said his brother dropped him off at Medical Centre junction in Mararaba and was to proceed to the Wisdom Market to buy bread and later to Orange Market to see someone.
He said some people who gathered at the supermarket shortly after the attack informed him that his brother was shot dead as he was waiting to pay for the bread. “They said some armed men entered the supermarket and started shooting and killing people,” he narrated.
Another resident close to the late Suleiman, Mrs Habibatu Edibo, said five of the deceased’s children attended Islamiyyah classes in her house.
“He wasn’t a problematic person and was prompt in paying the fees of his children to the Mallam that handled them,” she said.
She also prayed to God to send a helper to assist his pregnant wife and children.
Our reporter, who visited the scene of the gun attack on Wednesday, learnt from people near the supermarket that at about 8:35pm on Tuesday, January 2, four gunmen riding at the back seat of four motorcycles alighted at the entrance of the supermarket and shot at the CCTV camera before entering the place. They said the robbers killed four persons.
Emma, an eye witness said he wanted to open a freezer at a shop in the place but something nudged him to go outside. As soon as he came out he saw someone alight from a motorcycle with a gun. He said the look of the person was frightful and he quickly ran into the shop and lay down on the ground just before the shooting began.
Prophet Adejobi, a resident of the area, said he left his younger brother behind at the supermarket. He said his brother later called him on phone and told him of the gunmen attack. “When I rushed there, four persons were dead without an arrest made,” he lamented.
Obinna Mathew, another nearby resident, described One Man Village as a very peaceful community. He said what happened on Tuesday night surprised residents of the area as they thought it was a war in progress.
Ngozi Nwachukwu said she saw when the police were evacuating four hefty corpses into a Hilux van and learnt from people that they were killed by gunmen as they were negotiating the prices of bread inside the supermarket.
She said one of the survivors of the attack informed people that one of the attackers snapped the picture of one of the victims, whose identity card was placed on his chest by them after the attack.
Our reporter also learnt that after the attack, the gunmen freely walked away from the supermarket without riding on motorcycles or in any vehicle.
Another witness, Chijoke, a vigilante, who put the time of the incident at 8:30 pm, said members of his group rushed out when they learnt that one of the generous residents in the area,, a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was shot.
“He was a very nice man that generously did ‘Happy New Year’ for all of us,” the vigilante added.
Our reporter learnt that investigations had been taken over by the Nasarawa State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police force. A police officer at the crime area, who is not authorised to speak to the press, told our reporter that the target of the attack might have been one of the customers, adding that the others were unlucky to have been at the scene.
Some residents, who entered the supermarket few minutes after the attackers left, said the attackers might have been after the CBN staff, Daniel Adefemi Okunade, as his identity card was placed on top of his remains immediately after he was killed.
Reacting to the incident in a press release, the Nasarawa State Police Command, through its Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent Ranham Nansel, confirmed the attack and said investigations were ongoing, with the state police commissioner deploying the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of CID to the crime scene to carry out comprehensive investigations towards apprehending those behind the attack.