FOR almost six months, the Niger State Police Command, in conjunction with their colleagues at the Force Headquarters Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, had mounted surveillance and were on the pursuit of one Mohammed Jemilu Jubrilu; an indigene of Kano State over an allegation of being responsible for the murder of his wife, Hadiza (nee Atoyebi), in a hotel room in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State sometime in May this year over an unresolved crisis between them.And no sooner than the suspect allegedly snuffed life out of his wife through strangulation, that he abandoned her lifeless body and took to his heels in a bid to escape arrest and prosecution by the police who were later invited to the scene of the crime by the management and staff of the hotel, few hours after the incident.The Nigerian Tribune gathered that prior to the arrest of the fleeing suspected murderer on Monday, October 17, 2011 while attempting to transact a business at a branch of a second generation bank within Abuja metropolis, it dawned on the police that if care was not taken, the suspect might evade justice as a result of his elusive nature just like most suspects of other unresolved murder cases in the country in the past.But the resilience and patience of the Nigeria Police homicide detectives paid off after they had succeeded in arresting and putting the fleeing suspect in one of the cells in the Niger State Police Command headquarters after which further investigation into the murder case commenced.The Nigerian Tribune further learnt that when the suspect was still at large, the police, were able to recover the call logs from the private telephone service providers and were able to track all the telephone calls allegedly made by the runaway suspect, feared to be an advanced fee fraud practitioner.Further checks revealed that the police were also able to work on the premise that no matter how long the suspect tried to evade justice, he would one day surface, either to seek medical attention from public or private health institutions or collect money from a bank and consequently, detectives were reportedly placed at all these institutions where he was believed to have interest.Predictably, Jemilu ran out of cash and had to seek the help of one of his friends,who allegedly wired money to him through the electronic money transfer and it was in the bid to cash the money, estimated at about N50,000, that vigilant detectives spotted and arrested him.The police in Abuja were said to have quickly alerted the Niger State Command headquarters, Minna, which dispatched four heavily armed police detectives to receive and transfer him to Minna and Jemilu was brought at 3.30am on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 on the orders of the Commissioner of Police, Niger State Police Command, Ibrahim Maishanu.It was, however, gathered that the suspect was said to have initially denied killing his wife, but that the police were allegedly not convinced by his argument, following which he was said to have been confronted with some documents including the call logs which showed his movement and that of his late wife, Hadiza.Thereafter, Jemilu allegedly became sober and was said to have confessed to the crime, stating that the incident 'is a mistake' and 'the work of the devil'.Meanwhile, Jemilu and Hadiza, daughter of a former judge in Kwara State, Hon. Justice Kamaldeen Bello Atoyebi {rtd.}, were said to have met and fallen in love, in 2009 in Abuja and the relationship between the love birds blossomed into marriage in early 2010, after which the late Hadiza, a graduate of Sociology from the University of Abuja allegedly convinced her parents to endorse the relationship between her and her then heart throb.It was, however, stated that barely one year after the two love birds had tied the nuptial knots and the marriage was blessed with a baby girl, Hadiza began to take note of some alleged strange attitude in her husband.These behaviours, according to close family sources, were said to have terrified Hadiza who was not courageous enough to raise the issue with her parents, but was only confiding in her siblings.Nigerian Tribune further learnt that at a stage, Hadiza was said to have been arrested by the police in Abuja when her husband who was being sought after could not be found. "It was the combined efforts of some friends and relations of Jemilu that ensured her release from police custody and the final blow in the relationship between the duo was the visit to their matrimonial home by some businessmen from Kaduna State who came after Jemilu, who, they accused of defrauding Sayka Global Ventures, Kaduna of about N5.2 million", the source stated .The souce, who begged not to be quoted, further disclosed that a director of the company, Alhaji Sani Yussuf Karau-Karau, claimed that Jemilu said he got local purchase order for the supply of several tonnes of maize to the Federal Government's buffer stock of grains and that payment would be made as soon as the supply was made.It was learnt that it was when Jemilu could not pay for the grains that the traders came to his matrimonial home to ask for their money.Alhaji Karau-Karau and other directors of the company also reported at the police Criminal Investigations Department in Minna when they learnt that Jemilu had reportedly killed his wife and the police were after him.Nigerian Tribune findings further revealed that as a result of the embarrassment, Hadiza allegedly ran to her parents in Ganmo, a town very close to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.Thereafter, Jemilu was reported to have in the company of a friend, approached his in- laws to appeal to Hadiza on his behalf and that his distraught wife should forgive him and be allowed to return to her matrimonial home; a plea which the deceased initially refused until she was literarily forced to do so by her parents .Hadiza's mother allegedly gave Jemilu a condition that before her daughter could return with her husband, the 9-month old baby girl, would be left behind in Ganmo.The condition was said to have caused disaffection between Jemilu and his in-laws before neighbours allegedly waded in and settled the rift and directed that the little baby be left behind.It was gathered that the couple left Ganmo around 2.00pm and got to Tafa in Niger state late in the evening and because it was late for them to continue the journey, the couple decided to put up in a hotel in the local government area.The following day, according to an eyewitness account, Jemilu allegedly informed the hotel attendants that he was going for a business trip in Abuja and would come back later in the day. He also reportedly informed the hotel attendants that his wife was allegedly 'tired" due to exhaustion and needed to "rest" and as such should not be "disturbed" until he came back from Abuja.The hotel staff later became apprehensive and suspicious when Hadiza neither came out of her room nor ordered for meals and drinks, a situation that prompted them to peep through the window only to find her 'still sleeping'.They were said to have made a distress call to the police, who were said to have forced the hotel room door open and found Hadiza dead with blood oozing out of her ears and nostrils, including marks which appeared as finger nail cuts on her neck, a sign that she could have been strangulated to death.Frantic efforts by the police to contact the husband through the telephone numbers he left at the hotel receptionists' desk were allegedly not successful.When the former Chief Judge of Kwara state, who doubled as the bereaved father of the deceased Hadiza, was informed about the sad news, he was reported to have called Jemilu on phone for confirmation of the unfortunate development. And in his response, Jemilu was said to have informed the old man that it was true that his daughter was dead as he told Pa Atoyebi that the incident occurred when Hadiza fell off a moving trailer but could not explain how she got on a trailer from the car in which they were traveling when they both left Ganmo.Since May 19, 2011 when the search for Jemilu began, he allegedly did not attend the burial of his wife which took place at Wuse Muslim cemetery, Minna as he was also nowhere to be found until his arrest on the afternoon of that fateful Monday.However, Hon. Justice Kamaldeen Bello Atoyebi, while speaking with journalists last weekend in Minna, Niger state capital , on the arrest of his former son-in-law, cum murder suspect, praised the police 'for doing their job' and stated that due process of the law should be followed in an effort to ensure that all parties in the case got justice in a free and fair manner.Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Niger State Police Command, ASP Oguche Richard Adamu, who confirmed the arrest, in a separate interview with the Nigerian Tribune, said as soon as investigation into the matter was concluded , the suspect would be arraigned in a court and charged for murder.
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