Late Ummakulsum Sani Buhari
In addition to banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram and IPOB, the country is also awash with stories of premaditated killing by ordinary and otherwise, unsuspecting people.
Many people wonder the motivations behind murder, especially when the victim is someone with whom the killer was formerly close.
The media reports on a murder of a spouse, a killing of taxi drivers or the murder of a parent by a son or daughter without any provocation in many instances..
Various explanations have been offered for these atrocities, ranging from romantic infatuation to ritualistic killings motivated by greed, vengeance, or envy.
Does love justify taking a life? What happened to Ummakulsum Sani Buhari, who was stabbed to death on Friday in Kano State.
Killing of 5-year-old Hanifa Abubakar
This comes as we are getting past the killing of Hanifa ABubakar, a beautiful 5-year-old girl who was murdered by her principal for financial motives.
We then moves on from this heinous event that has held many in sadness; to the account of the murder of 23-year-old ummaKulsum by her Chinese lover, reverberating throughout the country.
UmmaKulsum Sani Buhari
This Saturday, we heard of the tragic news that a Chinese national had allegedly murdered his supposed 23-year-old Nigerian lover, Ummakulsum, aka Ummita, in the Janbulo quarters, Kumbotso local government area of Kano.
The suspect reportedly visited the deceased at her parents’ home on Friday night and stabbed her to death in front of her 2 siblings and mother.
She was said to have died before her mother’s screams attracted any rescue.
Ummakulsum’s mother told Daily Trust that her daughter’s romantic connection with the suspect had ended before he allegedly stabbed her multiple times.
“He always comes around wanting to see her and she has been refusing. This time around when he came, he kept knocking on the door. When I was fed up of him hitting the door loudly, I opened the door and he pushed me aside and got in and started stabbing her with a knife. I started shouting and people came running. We rushed her to the hospital but before we arrived, she was dead”
The spokesman of Police in Kano, Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, confirmed the incident and identified the man as Geng Quanrong. Though no motive have being given for the killing.
Sadik Kabir Gaya
The death of Sadik Kabir Gaya, son of Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, who represents Kano North in the National Assembly, sent shockwaves through the media on Friday.
Sadik, an employee of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), was shot dead on Tuesday in Abuja, purportedly over a N3.5 million deal.
From what Radio Nigeria has heard, he was allegedly murdered by friends, who then dumped his body in a swimming pool before withdrawing N20 million from his bank account.
DSP Josephine Adeh, the FCT Police Command’s spokesperson, has revealed that there are 5 suspects in custody at this time.
The investigation is ongoing, and we can only speculate as to the possible financial, deliberate, or other motivations for the killing.
Emmanuel Yobo Agbovinuere
Some have speculated that the doctor who is accused of murdering an Uber driver may have suffered from a mental breakdown, since it is difficult to understand why a person who has sworn an oath to protect human life would turn around and end it.
After hiring Mr Agbovinuere as a taxi driver, Dr. Abass Adebowale Adeyemi is suspected of killing him.
Abbas is alleged to have promised to treat the dead with his leg discomfort, but instead injected him with a substance that is suspected to have killed him.
Abbas made off with the Agbovinuere’s vehicle.
He has since been taken into custody.
Salem Tordue
Tordue Salem, a reporter for the Vanguard Newspaper, had been missing for about 3 weeks until the body was found in Abuja.
His death was supposedly caused by a hit and run driver according to police, although the way in which his body was found casts doubt on this story.
Wasiu Oguntade
In Modakeke, Osun State, Wasiu was shot dead by his friend Wahab Hammed, a tailor and part-time commercial biker, and an accomplice, Ayobami Adegoke.
Wahab said the dead man was tyrannizing him with his “yahoo yahoo” wealth.
“What happened was that Ayobami and I killed Wasiu because he was always oppressing me with the proceeds of his Yahoo Yahoo activities. He was making good money from Yahoo Yahoo. I was into it too, but I was not so lucky. Whenever he made good money, he would come to me and be flaunting it. At times, he would even send me on errand because of the money he had made. One day, an evil plan formed in my mind…….
Osinachi Nwachukwu.
The 42 year-old ‘Ekwueme’ singer who passed away in April in an Abuja hospital may have been a victim of physical and emotional torture at the hands of her spouse.
She left behind four kids, and the case has continued in court, where her husband continues to deny killing her but relatives beleive otherwise.
Usifo Ataga
The death of SuperTV founder Usifo in 2021 caused an uproar.
Late Usifo Ataga was alledgly killed by Chidinma Ojukwu, a 22-yeqr-old student of the University of Lagos
Chidinma was arrested on June 24 and initially confessed to killing Usifo after the police found his lifeless body in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds at a hotel in the Lekki area of Lagos.
She later recanted her confession in an interview in July where she denied killing him.
Mr Ataga, who would have turned 51 this year, with many insisting that “no justice for Usifo Ataga!”
Bilyaminu Bello
The cases are countless, let take a wrap with Maryam Sanda who killed her husband Bilyaminu Bello in 2017.
A High Court of the FCT convicted and sentenced the mother of one to death by hanging for the killing.
Justice Yusuf Halilu said “every available evidence” had proved that Maryam “fatally” stabbed her husband to death.
An appeal was made at the Court of Appeal but was dismissed
Punishment of murder in Nigeria
There are death penalty provisions in both the Penal Code and the Criminal Code Act. Any person who commits the offense of murder shall be condemned to death, subject to the provisions of this part of this Code (Section 319 (1)), of the Criminal Code.
There is a widespread perception among Nigerians that the country’s justice system is ineffective because of its comparatively slow execution.
Writing Hadiza Abdulrahman; Editing by Saadatu Albashir