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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Two prosecution witnesses in the trial of the suspected killers of Arise News Correspondent, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, gave a chilling account of their ordeals on the night of September 29, 2025, when the suspects stormed their residence at Katampe, Abuja.
The Commissioner of Police is prosecuting Shamsu Hassan, Sani Surajo, Hassan Isah, Abubakar Alkamu and Abdulsalam Saleh, and six others before Justice Mohammed Idris of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Jabi district division , Abuja.
Others charged along with them are:Suleiman Badamasi, Zaradeen Mohammed, Musa Umar, Mashikur Jamil, Suleiman Sani and Abubakar Usman.
They are standing trial on a nine-count charge bordering on armed robbery and culpable homicide punishable by death.
In his testimony before the court, the first prosecution witness (PW1), Sani Yusuf, a resident of Unique Apartment, Katampe, told the court that he was asleep in his room when he heard noises and later heard a gunshot.
The gunshot, he said, forced him to get up from sleep to figure out what was happening when he heard a big bang on his door.
“I heard a gunshot with strange voices speaking Hausa and a huge bang on my door. When they entered, they started shouting, ‘Where are you? come out. I saw two men wearing masks. One of them pointed a pistol at me, and the other held a torchlight.
“They asked for my phones and computer, and I gave them my S25 Galaxy and my Macbook Air, while the one holding the pistol asked me to transfer money to him, but the other said no and asked them to leave,” Yusuf said.
The witness further added that while he was being robbed, he kept hearing voices and screams around the apartment, saying that, “that was when I realised there were a lot of them.”
According to Yusuf, he heard a female screaming, which stopped about 15 minutes later, adding that the lady was calling for help.
“I heard a lady screaming for help and noticed the security guard, Joshua, saying the other guard, Barnabas Danlami, had been shot.
“At this time, the robbers had left, so I came out, and on my right, I saw the body of a female lying face down in a pool of blood.
“I came closer and assumed she was shot. At the time, I couldn’t recognise her but could tell that she was lifeless,” he told the court.
Yusuf said he moved to where Joshua stood and saw that the security guard had tied Danlami’s gunshot wound, adding that they immediately got a neighbour’s car and took him to Maitama Fistrict Hospital.
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He further told the court that he later went to the house to check if there was anyone else who needed help, and learnt that the lady in her pool of blood had been taken away by the police
“I went back to the hospital at about 4 a.m and saw that the lady’s body I saw earlier was face up this time and recognised her as my neighbour, Somto Maduagwu” the witness said.
He added that Maduagwu was later confirmed dead.
On her part, the second prosecution witness (PW2), Fatou Toborteh, another resident of Unique Apartment, narrated how she heard screams and loud noises from her flat with her aunt and children at about 3 a.m. on the fateful day.
She said she later heard a bang on her door, got up from bed and opened the bedroom door with a view to going to the living room to see what was happenin.
“I heard a bang on my door and got up, opened the bedroom door and walked towards the living room and coincided with a man opening the front door, and he asked for money and my phone, which I pointed to on the floor.
“I did not have cash, so he opened the drawers in my room and saw my car keys and wallet. He took both, but I found my wallet at the entrance of the flat with my debit card on the floor,” she said.
Toborteh added that one of the robbers entered her aunt’s bedroom and took a gold-plated wristwatch, an iPhone 11 Promax and a Samsung phone from her, while the robber took a laptop and some cash from her 14-year-old daughter’s room.
They also opened my bedside drawer and found N55,000 cash and took it, then left and went downstairs with my car keys, CRV Toyota Honda,” she told the court.
She added that she, her aunt and daughter were petrified by what happened to them after the robbers, only to see through their balcony that a lady was lying in a pool of blood.
“We opened the balcony and saw a lady lying down with blood around her head. We went back to our living room, but didn’t know who fell and later heard from the neighbours that it was Maduagwu.
“We also learnt that Danlami was shot and the neighbours attempted to call the police and Maduagwu and Danlami were taken to the hospital,” she said.
Meanwhile, counsel to the defendants; Agbocheni Samson
Ojonimi Apeh, Dennis Abu and Seidu Alpha did not cross-examine the witnesses as they said that they did not have any questions for them.
Following their collective position, Justice Idris has adjourned the matter to Thursday, February 12, for continuation of trial.
