Police yet to pay N10m fine ordered by court 7 years after
Father of one of the victims, Alhaji Alfa Dangi, whose son, Hassan Alfa, was brutalized and killed by operatives of the disbanded anti-robbery squad in Kano State about seven years ago, is still seeking justice over the incident.
Dangi told Daily Trust Saturday that the incident left him and other family members traumatized.
“My family has been traumatised and we have been passing through so much emotional pains everyday over the loss of my son, Hassan Alfa,” he said.
According to him, the family filed a suit against the police at the Kano State High Court in 2014 to seek redress over the incident.
He said the court ruled in favour of the family and ordered the police authority to pay his family N10m compensation which it had refused to do till date.
“We secured the ruling at a Kano High court in January 2014 but police appealed the judgment at the Appeal Court in Kaduna in 2015 and up to 2019, we were at the court at three different times.
“The police or their representatives never appeared at any of the proceedings; the court wrote to them and they failed to honour which made the court at its last sitting to dismiss the case. We all have the ruling at hand.
“And more importantly, after getting judgment was the failure of the government and police authority to pay us the compensation as ordered by the court,” Dangi said.
He said besides the payment of compensations, the court also ordered that the SARS operatives that were responsible for the death of his son be punished and charged to court in addition to an open apology to be published in national dailies by the Inspector General of Police.
“All these things I’m telling you, none was done by the police,” he said.
He said for the past 7 years since the unfortunate incident, he had been bed ridden and could only walk with support.
On efforts made to recover the compensation, Alfa said “The Nigerian factor” has been the major challenge. “This is all I can tell you. There is no one who can stand for us,” he said.
Speaking further, Danga said: “I once called Kolo (the Head of SARS in Kano then) who was at the centre of the case, that after appealing the judgment, we have not heard from them. He told me that I was not supposed to call him but my lawyers; that the issue does not concern him.”
According to him, it was more worrisome for the family that all the SARS operatives that had hands in the death of his son are yet to be prosecuted.
“All those SARS officers involved in the case are still working with the police but have been transferred to various locations. Kolo, now the Deputy Commissioner in charge of SARS in the country, still works with all those his boys like Ibrahim and co.
“The two courts gave their judgments in our favour,” he said.
Some of the names Danga could recall that were linked to the incident include Yusuf Kolo, Ibrahim Admin, Hussaini, Umar Abdullahi and DPO Sheka.
Court documents obtained by Daily Trust Saturday showed that those joined as respondents in the case were the then Inspector General of Police, Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 1, the Kano State Commissioner of Police, SP Yusuf Kolo (officer-in-charge of SARS in Kano), SP Umar Abdullahi (the Divisional Police Officer Sheka) and Sa’a Garba Fagge.
Also speaking, a brother of the deceased, Auwal Alfa, who witnessed what transpired, said he still sheds tears each time he sees the picture of his late brother.
Recounting what happened, Auwal said “I can vividly recall when they took us to Sheka Police Division before being moved to SARS office after a day at the cell there.
“Immediately we entered the office, they began to beat us with sticks; they then took us to the Admin’s office where they also used sticks on us. Without any questioning, he took us to the then Head of SARS, Kolo.
“They kept accusing us of being armed robbers which was not what happened but a fight amongst some people. They insisted we admit we were armed robbers. It was at that point that my late brother went into full coma and couldn’t move any part of his body.
“After a night, they took us to hospital where he spent six days without moving any part of his body until he died there. It was his eyes only that were moving, nothing else until he died,”
Auwal said he still feels the emotional trauma each time he recalls how his brother was killed. He urged the police authorities to ensure justice was done in the case of his brother.
When contacted, the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, said he would not be able to comment on any issue at that time.