SOME people are not only wicked but are also heartless. William Shakespeare was right, when he wrote that, 'There is no art to find the mind's construction on the face.' If it were easy to detect a man's evil mind, probably, others may avoid such a man if and when he was planning his evil acts. But then, their appearances, most times, are always deceptive.The people living at Toro, the headquarters of Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, were recently thrown into confusion over the sudden disappearance of a cattle merchant in the town, who went to Njama on a phantom deal, but did not return home, only for the police to discover his headless body buried in a shallow grave somewhere.The merchant, according to the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Mr Ikechukwu Ayo Aduba, was lured to Njama by his close friends to buy cows and he went for the deal with N300,000 cash. However, matters, allegedly, took a different dimension on their arrival at Njama, where his friends, who were to act as negotiators in the deal, told him that the supposed cattle dealer was unavailable for the transaction but left a message that the Toro man should come back the following day, so that the sale could be completed.Briefing newsmen at the state police headquarters in Bauchi, last week Tuesday, on the activities of his command in the recent weeks, Aduba informed that on their way back to Toro, the evil friends ambushed the cattle merchant, robbed him and 'apparently in a bid to disguise the robbery as a ritual killing, his head was decapitated with several matchet cuts, his eyes gorged out after which his headless corpse was then buried in a shallow grave.'The police boss stated that acting on tip-off, a team of detectives from the state command's monitoring unit was detailed to unravel the circumstances surrounding the brutal killing of the cattle merchant. The team promptly swung into action and arrested five suspects, who, Aduba said, 'had all made useful statements to the police outlining their different roles in the most brutish act, while a cash sum of N108,000 was recovered from one of the suspects.'While saying that the investigation into the case was still going on, the police commissioner assured that all the culprits would not go scot-free as they would be made to face the full wrath of the law with a view to serving as a deterrent to others.But the suspects, while being paraded by the police, claimed innocence of the offence, saying they knew nothing about the crime. The friend who allegedly lured the deceased out to his death, Yelwa Mohammed, claimed he was not involved in the murder of his friend, saying that he felt bad about the death of his friend.Mohammed added that no kobo was found on him, adding that, 'I knew nothing about this crime. My friend went to buy cows. I was at home when he was killed. I was going to the market when the police came to arrest me. I am innocent.'His innocence or otherwise and that of other four suspects is however for the police to fully investigate and prove.In a related development, the police command made a harvest of arrest of other criminals, apart from the five suspected killers of the cattle merchant, in its continued efforts aimed at stamping out criminality in the state, which Aduba noted was made possible through the more galvanised intelligence unit. Fourteen armed youths from neighbouring Gombe State who were in Bauchi to effect the arrest of a supposed murderer who fled from Gombe State to take refuge in Bauchi were arrested by the Military/Police Joint Task Force.Items recovered from them, according to the commissioner of police were: four matchets, two daggers, one shovel, one pistol and three javelin poles.In another arrest, detectives from the Housing Estate Divisional Police headquarters in Bauchi picked up a man who had been parading himself variously as an Inspector of Police and a Prison officer going about to extort money from unsuspecting patent medicine dealers within the area of jurisdiction of the police division. Two identification cards and a rubber solution were recovered from the suspect.According to the state police commissioner, 'detectives from Zaki divisional headquarters in conjunction with a team of Military/Police Joint Task Force acting on information, sequel to a report made by staff of a corporate organisation, Inter-Food Distribution Co. Ltd, to the effect that he was robbed and beaten up by four men led by the dismissed driver of the company along the lonely Zaki highway, successfully arrested four suspects all dressed up in the full regalia of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs).'Items recovered from the suspects are a Toyota car with the registration number Lagos AP 571 AGL; two cutlasses and a dagger, while the police boss said that the suspects would be made to face the full wrath of the law on the completion of investigation.
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