Says slain brother had no intention of joining police
I spoke to him few hours before he was killed – DSP Alkali’s sister
From Ahmed Tahir Ajobe, Minna
Fatima Abubakar sat on a carpet in a sitting room of her modest residence on London Street, Dutsenkura area of Bosso Local Government area, when Daily Trust on Sunday visited the bereaved family last Friday.
It was not yet time for the early evening prayers (magrib) but the 28 year old was in deep meditation with a prayer bead dangling from her outstretched right hand. “She is praying for her late husband,” Aisha, a nephew offered. “All she could do now is to pray for him; please give her some time,” she pleaded.
Minutes later, the widow of the slain Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Alkali Mohammed of Mobile Police Unit 48 offered the visitors a welcome greeting. The deceased, along with his orderly were murdered, while on election duty in a rerun election, at Ujju community near Omoku in Ogba/ Edema/Ndoni council area, Rivers State last week.
The deceased officer’s fouryear-old son, Aliyu, rushed in from the inner room and tugged at his bereaved mother’s wrapper, asking for icecream, while Bilikisu, 7, and the eldest child walked around the sitting room with a toy baby strapped to her back.
The deceased, Daily Trust on Sunday learnt, had 3 kids; Rabi, a year-old being the youngest. They were looking forward to a call to join their father in Port Harcourt for the break as usual, but DSP Mohammed instead came visiting in a coffin.
Our correspondent offered his condolences and sought to speak to Fatima about her late husband. It was a difficult request looking at the atmosphere around the house. She had to also seek permission from someone before she could do so, but the person on the other end of the telephone line declined the request. It was difficult for her to pass the message but we understood the situation.
Even the request for a family photograph with the kids, was politely turned down. Aliyu dashed in again bearing his ice cream with smiles on his face. Fatima must now have to ensure that the smiles would not fade with the demise of the boy’s father. But like most council workers across the state, her salary has been held for the past 6 months.
Like the situation on the London Street residence of the slain officer, the mood around the Lawu Street, Area Court area family house of the Alkali’s was not different when our correspondent visited last Friday. Visitors still trooped in to offer their condolences. Hajiya Rakiya Alikali, the deceased’s mother held sway in the absence of her husband, retired Commissioner of Police Yakubu Alkali, who exited the service from Lagos in 2012. CP Alkali had travelled out of the state two days earlier, but Hajiya Rakiya could hardly be of much help as she was still in deep mourning.
Malama Safiya Alkali Adamu, therefore, became the natural spokesperson of the family. She last saw her deceased brother, fondly referred to in the area as “Boboyi” on July 30, 2016, when he came visiting Minna. They spoke by phone that fateful Saturday morning and when she asked him whether he would be visiting during the Christmas period. “I don’t know if I could make it; I doubt if I could,” was his reply, she recalled.
She said she started getting calls from different people later that day, with some merely asking if she was okay. “And I told them I was, until Mansur, the youngest boy in the family and now the last male came to tell me that he heard a rumour that Mohammed had been murdered,” she explained in tears.
She said she then had to call her father who was also away to confirm the development but became apprehensive as he could not immediately answer the calls. “I have to keep on calling and when he eventually answered the calls my heart sank. He said it was true that Mohammed is dead but I couldn’t’ believe it because we spoke that very morning and there was no indication that something was wrong with him.”
She then rushed to the family house from her husband’s along Nasarawa area of Minna town to meet sympathizers that had already gathered. Even then the reality had not really dawned on her until the casket bearing his remains arrived Minna at about 3: 40 am on Monday morning. He was interred later that day at their country home in Duwasha village of Bosso Local Government area.
She said she and the deceased were very close and shared a lot of secrets being his immediate younger sister. She explained that few months before the incident, the late Mohammed had complained to her that the job was becoming too tedious. “He told me that in the event of an attack, team leaders like him would always be the first target. And as if to confirm that fear, he became the key target of the attack that killed him,” she said in a cracked voice.
She said the late Boboyi never wanted to join the police but had to succumb to pressure later. After a meritorious service, CP Alakali wanted someone within the family to carry on from where he had stopped. As the eldest of the five children and the first male, that responsibility naturally fell on the late DSP’s shoulder. He accepted the challenge albeit grudgingly and enrolled as a cadet ASP in 2009, after obtaining a degree from the Federal University of Technology, Minna.
He would join the mobile unit of the force and was posted to Port Harcourt. He got promoted to the rank of a Deputy Superintendent early in the year for his dedication to duty and brilliance. The Niger State police commissioner, Malam Zubairu Mu’azu, confirmed that the late DSP was an example of dedicated officers the Nigeria Police Force craved for and had the potentials of rising to the topmost position.
However, such aspiration and expectation were cut shot in the last bloody rerun in Rivers State. Safiya recalled that such tragedy was not new to the family as one of her sisters, Bilkisu, a medical student of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto slumped and died during a class session some 10 years ago. But the recent calamity did not in any way change the family’s outlook in life. When asked whether with the tragedy, the family would encourage the remaining male member of the family to join any of the security agencies, Safiya said “what is destined by the Almighty to be, will be; nobody can change it”.
The deceased was born in 1974 and was an alumnus of Federal College of Education, Kontagora in Niger State. He also attended the state Polytechnic, Zungeru and the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna before joining the Nigeria Police.