Dogara had petitioned the IGP, Usman Baba, alleging a threat to life, saying two police officers were conspiring with one Barau Joel Amos to kill him
By Kehinde Okeowo
A suspect arrested in connection with a plot to kill the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has spoken about why he wanted the former lawmaker dead.
His motive was revealed while the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Umar Mamman spoke with newsmen about the incident.
According to Mamman, they got information that one of their men was trying to sell his gun, an incident which led him to order the audit of the armory.
The police officer was later arrested and he confessed that he wanted to sell it to someone after guns were recovered from him.
He said, “What happened is that, we received discreet information that there are some of our officers, one of our police officers was attempting to sell a rifle, so we went after him, initially we have received prior information that he was carrying the rifles inside his car, we went after him, we got him and asked about the owner of the car and he said he is the owner, we searched the car and we discovered the guns.
“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 cause of our investigation, he implicated one person whom they live in the same house.
“In continuation of our investigations of the first person, he said it was someone in Tafawa Balewa who approached him that he was looking for a 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.”
ALSO READ: Gunmen abduct 4 Reverend Sisters in Imo
The Police commissioner later said after the police officer gave the name of who he wanted to sell the gun to and he was apprehended, they continued their investigation.
The suspect upon further interrogation, confessed he wanted to kill Dogara because he and some other people instigated the burning of his house when a riot broke out.
“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, that is the reason why he is looking for a rifle to kill him (Dogara), and so, we launched an investigation in that regard.
“One thing with human beings is, if he is guilty, he would not want to admit until you use wisdom, so we have intensified our investigations. And on the missing rifle in our armory, I directed that our armory be audited and in the cause of auditing, we discovered that apart from the two rifles we intercepted, some were not in the armory and so we have expanded our investigations.
“Now that I am talking to you, our armory 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,” the CP added.
Dogara had earlier petitioned the IGP, Usman Baba, alleging a threat to life, saying two police officers were conspiring with one Barau Joel Amos to kill him.
