Kanam LGA STF’s extrajudicial killing and the urgent need to dispense justice for Mado

Immediately after Isha’i prayers, they left Wase town of Wase local government for Jarmai where their sister was getting married, little known to them that they would be faced with a security personnel-inflicted disaster.

Not long after they left Dengi the headquarters of Kanam, and were approaching Kyamsagi village, the eight of them, mounting on four motorcycles were greeted by gunshots. It was a group of gun-wielding men on the lonely road whose identify was difficult to make out.

Afraid that it could be kidnappers or armed robbers, as Kanam in recent times has been in the news for being infested with criminal gangs operating almost unhindered, they decided to turn back. The next thing they heard were bullets being rained on them. Four of them fell to the bullets while the rest managed to flee along with the nearby bush.

“Mado, who was hit in the leg by the bullet from the trigger-happy men’s rifle was already screaming and crawling on the tarred road”, narrated Audu, who was also shot in the leg but managed to hide in the schrubs by the road.

“To my surprise,” added Audu, “it was men of the Special Task Force (STF) who were deployed to the area to contain criminality”. The STF is a combined security operation made up of the army and mobile police personnel.

One of the soldiers who shot us approached pointing his already cocked gun at Mado, which made Mado ask the soldier in Hausa “Me muka muku da zaku harbe mu? Ko zaka kara harbi na ne? Meaning “what offense did we commit that you shot us? Do you want to shoot me again?” Before he could add anything, the soldier silenced him with another bullet, this time on the chest.

The boys could not have known that the shooters were STF personnel because where they stationed themselves that night and killed Mado and injured his three friends is not a checkpoint. They left their checkpoint and came to the place to perfect their extrajudicial plans.

It is disheartening that the STF personnel have done nothing to stop the incessant kidnappings and armed robberies that have become a daily occurrence in Kanam and its environs have resorted to killing innocent citizens for no justifiable reason.

Wase youths have been known to be hardworking, peaceful, and without any stain of criminality or disobedience to constituted authorities. It is the reason we are calling the attention of the media, human rights organisations, and governments at all levels to urgently intervene, investigate and bring this trigger-happy STF personnel to book, the family of the late Mado is adequately compensated, while the medical bills of the three others that sustained various degree of injuries receiving treatment at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital Bauchi and Wase General Hospital be shouldered by the government.

Those we believe are the only bases on which such fatal misdemeanors of security agents against law-abiding citizens can be prevented in the future.