The duo, Shuaibu Rabo, a 26-year-old farmer and member of a local vigilance group in his village and Aliyu Usman, aka Chiroma, a taxi driver, who were parade before newsmen in Abuja, told of how they were recruited to execute the project.
They also told how the man who got them to do the hatchet job did not give them a dime after the killing the former CDS.
The suspects who came prepared and ready to answer questions from journalist were however, restricted from answering tough questions by the military and police who felt embarrassed by the questions and hurriedly stopped the question and answer session.
Excerpts:
My name is Shuaibu Rabo; I am 26 years old. I am a farmer and I also work as a vigilante in the night.
I got involved in the killing of the former Chief of Defence Staff when on a particular Friday that I went to the market at Geita, in Nasarawa State. One of my friends met me and told me he had a job for me. I went to the market with one of my other friend, Yahaya when my friend Chiroma, approached me and told me that he had a job for me. I asked him, the nature of the job and he said I should be patient until next week Tuesday when he would tell me what the job was all about.
I also asked him where the job would take place and he said he was not the original owner of the job that I should exercise patience until he met the person that brought the job to him.
So, on the agreed date, I went with six of my friends: Shuiabu, Chiroma, Lamido, Yahaya, and one Alhaji Moje, Paso and Ibrahim.
I never knew the status of the person that they invited me to go and kill and they never told me how much they would pay me before we embarked on the dangerous journey and they never told any of us how much was in the bag that was recovered from the victim.
After the killing of the big man, they did not give me a penny from the job because after the operation, Chiroma took the bag that they got from the big man and Chiroma told us that he handed over the bag to Alhaji Maude, so they did not give me anything.
He only promised that he would get across to us after some days but he never did until we were arrested.
“We never knew the target was a retired soldier at all before we embarked on the operation. It was after we were arrested that we got to know that the man was not just a soldiers but a very big soldier.”
My name is Chiroma.
We never knew the man was a former Chief of Defence Staff.
I am a driver by profession. I am a taxi driver.
What happened was that one day, I went to a place called Panda, and then one Alhaji Maude, approached me and told me that there was one man that had a farm around their area and that he perceived the man to be very rich and that he wanted us to do a job for him. He said he would let us know whenever the man was on the farm so that we could carry out the job.
At that point, I told him I had never done that kind of job before in my life that I could not do it and he said no that there was nothing wrong for me to start and that there wasn’t going to be any problem; that I should not worry, and there was nothing to be afraid about.
I told him I couldn’t do it that all I knew best to do was driving and nothing more, but he kept assuring me and I said ‘kai! Me, I’m afraid’ but he kept assuring me that there was not going to be any problem.
Later, one day, I drove to Kwoi, in southern Kaduna where I went to deliver some bags of ginger to my customer. While on the way, the man called me and told me the man was on the farm and that we should come down, but I told me I was on a journey. But he said I should try and come back on time and meet him so that we could do the work and I said ‘ok.’
So I made a u-turn parked my vehicle in one of the villages and went to meet my people at Bade village and told them that the Alhaji had finally called to inform me that the man was on the farm and that we should come over for the attack and we had to go.
I took seven people to Alhaji for the job. When we all then moved to Gitata village, Alhaji Maude took a motorbike and met us at Zango, not too far from the big man’s farm.
While we were there, he told us that the man was on his way so we waited for him and attacked him immediately we saw his vehicle approaching.
We just hit the road as soon as he showed us the car. We attacked his vehicle and killed him.
I have never participated in an armed robbery before; that was my first ever; I was forced into it by Alhaji Maude. I have never stolen in my life, not even a chicken. This was a mistake. I have never done that kind of thing in my life, I swear to God who made me.
After we finished the work, there was one man that I earlier took Keffi hospital after he had finished killing the big soldier. I went back to carry the man only to find out that he was dead; so I had to carry his body back to his people.
I did not take part in the kidnap of the engineer that was with the CDS. I only took part in the killing.
What I know is that the time we finished the job, I carried the bag that was in the big man’s car and gave it to Ibrahim. There was money in the bag but I don’t know how much it was. All I know is that I gave the bag to Ibrahim and he, in turn, handed it over to Alhaji Maude and after that I left because those people were waiting for me at Keffi hospital to carry the dead body of the man I had earlier taken to the hospital so I didn’t know what happened thereafter
Tags
Crime