Murder

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

A woman from New York City who was accused of trying to steal the identity of another woman by feeding poisoned cheesecake to her doppelganger was found guilty of attempted murder.

In a news release, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz stated that a jury had found 47-year-old Viktoria Nasyrova guilty of trying to kill 35-year-old Olga Tsvyk with cheesecake laced with a potent sedative in August 2016 and stealing her passport and other belongings afterwards.

The district attorney stated that Nasyrova intended to pass herself off as Tsvyk after killing her since the two women had similar looks, including dark hair and skin tones.

The attorney was quoted as saying, “The jury saw through the deception and schemes of the defendant. She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity. Fortunately, her victim survived, and the poison led right back to the culprit.”

According to the prosecution team, after eating the cheesecake, Tsvyk felt nauseous and passed out. Later, she was discovered practically unconscious in bed by a friend and was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

The team noted that after Tsvyk was released from the hospital and went home, she discovered that her passport, work authorization card, gold ring, and other valuables were all gone.

Nasyrova was detained after it was discovered through testing of residue from the cheesecake container that it contained phenazepam, a strong sedative.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Imo State Police Command arrested five persons for allegedly killing a man whose wife died in a car accident a few days ago. 

The incident took place on Monday, October 11, 2022, and her demise stroke terror and threw the community into deep mourning. 

The man was identified as Apostle Wisdom Mbakwe and hailed from Umuduruchukwu Aboh, Isu, in the Nwangele Local Government Area of the state. 

He was said to have been making the burial arrangements for his wife when he was brutally murdered. 

Speaking to journalists in the state, one of the deceased relatives recounted, “Our brother was observing his morning prayer according to the Jewish religion he professes. 

“Just then, Chidiebere said he heard the shout of ‘Yahweh, Yahweh’ and rushed into the house just in time to see the deceased struggling with some men.

“One of them tried to use a machete on his head, but he dodged, and it landed on his shoulders. He ran out to alert some neighbours and the youth of the area. 

“When they came, they did not see my brother or the assailants. So they started combing the bush, thinking that if they were kidnappers, they wouldn’t have gone far.

“But they combed everywhere without seeing anyone. When they eventually returned to the house, they observed blood all over the sitting room and saw my brother where the killers had pushed his body in between some chairs and covered him up with curtains,” she added. 

Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Mike Abattam, said the Police are still investigating to fully discover the circumstances surrounding the incident.

By Uzair Adam Imam

A 21-year-old man, Chukwudi, has reportedly killed his two parents for refusing to give him some money in Nnewi Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Chukwudi, who is an undergraduate student of one university in Anambra State, is the only son to his parents.

The victims were identified as Mr. and Mrs Micheal Ulor. However, there corpses had started decomposing when they were discovered on Thursday.

Chukwudi killed his parents at their residence at Mr. Moses Nnodu’s compound, Abubor Nnewichi-Nnewi, close to Orie Agbo Market.

It was gathered that Chukwudi fled to unknown destination since he killed his two parents.

The spokesperson for the State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, confirm the incident to journalists.

Tochukwu said all efforts to trace the suspect’s whereabouts were on top gear.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Chinese Business Community Association of Nigeria, CBCAN, has condemned the murder of Ummu Khulthum Buhari, alias Ummita, in Kano.

This was made known through a statement released on behalf of the Wakilin Mutanen China a Kano by his personal assistant, Ghuan Lei Zhan on Monday.

“The Chinese Business Community Association of Nigeria (CBCAN) under the leadership of Wakilin Mutanen China a Kano, Mr Zike Zhang, has condemned the Killing of Ummukuthum Buhari allegedly by a Chinese National, her lover Geng Quarong” Part of the statement reads.

The Chinese Business Community also said it supports law to take its proper course.

Ummukuthum was allegedly murdered by her Chinese lover on Friday night. Her murder has generated outrage on social media. Many people expressed concern over crimes allegedly committed by Chinese nationals working in Nigeria.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Following their conviction on a two-count charge, the Nigerian Army fired two soldiers assigned to the 241 Recce Battalion, Nguru, Yobe State.

Lt. Col. Ibrahim Abdullahi Osabo, the acting commanding officer of the battalion, stated that the accused were found guilty on two counts: failing to complete military responsibilities and acting in a way that jeopardized service discipline.

Before being completely dismissed the suspects had their ranks downgraded from lance corporal to private.

Remember that after allegedly killing a renowned Islamic cleric named Sheikh Goni Aisami in cold blood, Yobe State police detained Lance Corporal John Gabriel with service number N/A13/69/1522 and Lance Corporal Adamu Gideon with service number N/A13/70/6552, both assigned to 241 Recce Battalion, Nguru, Yobe State.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

A wrestler who murdered his wife for requesting a divorce letter has been sentenced to death by Adamawa State High Court.

The man, identified as Thank-You Grim, was said to be a renowned wrestler from the Silli community in Guyuk Local Government Area of Adamawa state.

The Chief Judge, Justice Nathan Musa, while delivering the judgment on Tuesday, said the prosecution had convinced the court that the man had committed the offence and the court, therefore, sentenced him to death by hanging. 

Narrating the incident, some residents told journalists that Grim had thrown his wife, Kwalla, on the ground before using a pestle to hit her in the head, which led to her death.

It was gathered that the couple had lived separately since January 2018 following irreconcilable differences.

However, when the deceased fell in love with another man and wanted to remarry, she asked Grim for a divorce letter, a development that frustrated him. 

The resident disclosed that instead of granting her request, the wrestler lured the deceased to come over to collect the letter. 

At she arrived, the man started pleading with her to return to him, a proposal she outright rejected.

That was said to be the start of their argument, resulting in him hitting her with a pestle, leading to her death.

By Aminu Muhammad

A Kano State High Court has sentenced Abdulmalik Tanko and Hashim Isyaku to death by hanging following their conviction for kidnapping and culpable homicide.

Abdulmalik Tanko and two others were tried on four count charges of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, confinement, and culpable homicide contrary to sections 97, 274, 277, 221 of the Kano State Penal Code 1991.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Usman Na’abba ruled the prosecuting counsel proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendants criminally conspired, abducted and murdered the five-year old pupil, Hanifa Abubakar.

The defence counsel, Barr Asiya Mohammed, had earlier on behalf of the convicted persons pleaded with the Court to tamper justice with mercy.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the barbaric killing of Harira Jibril and her four kids, threatening that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) should expect a tough response. 

The president criticized the killing of innocent people in the South East and other parts of the country. 

Recall that the Daily Reality reported how the outlawed terrorist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has mercilessly murdered a pregnant woman and her four innocent kids in Anambra.

The woman identified as Harira Jibril was killed alongside her four kids and six other persons of northern extraction on Sunday, May 23, 2022. 

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the president, Malam Garba Shehu,  disclosed this in a statement signed Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

However, the president described the incident as “wild, barbarous and wanton killings of innocent people.”

Buhari further urged citizens to avoid hasty steps or conclusions that could exacerbate the situation.

He cautioned that the general public should allow the law to take its proper course.

He added that “the public is against the indiscriminate sharing of posts on social media so as to deny vested interests who seek to divide us and create disturbance the chance to do so.”

By Uzair Adam Imam 

A father of a four-year-old girl, Khadijah Abdullahi, popularly known as “Ilham” has recounted the traumatic incident of how his neighbour allegedly connived with some people, kidnapped and killed his daughter after collecting ransom at Tilden Fulani, Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi state. 

Speaking to The Daily Reality, the father, Abdullahi Yusuf, said the girl was abducted during the Ramadan fasting period on April 11, 2022. But according to the Nigeria Security & Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), they received this shocking information on Saturday, 23rd of April, 2022.

Yusuf narrated how the suspect mercilessly strangled the little Ilham to death and later buried her in the kitchen of his house, and kept on demanding more ransom.

The prime suspect, identified as Alhaji Kabiru Abdullahi, was said to have sympathized with the victim’s father and joined a group of people who trooped out in search of the innocent Ilham before the investigation pinned him down. Though, another suspect, Alhaji Yawale was apprehended by the NSCDC officers of Toro Division.

The incident has left the Tilden Fulani community in great fear, as parents were left in the dark.

A source, Hussaini Narabi, confided in our reporter that they took to their social media platforms to announce the mysterious disappearance of the little Ilham and post her pictures.

He said, “However, Ilham was not found, but the alleged abductor was arrested by the security personnel.”

My last moment with little Ilham – father

Recounting the traumatic experience, Abdullahi Yusuf, the father of the murdered innocent girl, said he had a joyous moment with his little kid before he finally made for the market where he was running his business. 

He said, “It happened one Friday when Ilham went out in the company of her little friends to school. In the early hours of that day, before I went to the market, Ilham came to me with excitement asking me to buy her biscuit. 

“Sadly enough, on that same day, I was called by her mother around 5 pm to inform me that Ilham was missing. I didn’t hesitate to run back home.

“We trooped in search of Ilham, unknown to us that we will never see her again. Despite an exhaustive search for her, we went back home hopelessly as the search was fruitless. 

“A few days later, the abductors contacted me demanding for N1million ransom. They resolved to accept N150,0000 after a serious bargain.

‘Suspect spying on me’

Yusuf said he began to suspect his neighbour, Alhaji Kabiru, when he sent his son to spy on him every morning. 

He said, “One day when the boy came in early in the morning, I threatened to break his legs if I ever saw him again in such hours. 

“Two days later, my neighbour packed to another area without informing me. Since then, I began suspecting him. So I went ahead to tell the police who came to investigate the matter. 

“On seeing them, the man, to the surprise of anyone, began to yell for help atop his voice. They arrested him. And after a thorough investigation, the man confessed to both kidnapping and killing my little Ilham. 

Yusuf described his neighbour as ruthless when he saw IIlham’s corpse as she was unburied. 

Speaking, the Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmed Wakili, confirmed the incident but said the case is yet to be brought to the command.

He said, “The case is with Bauchi State Civil Defence. I watched it on TV news. But they are yet to bring the case to the police.”

By Ibrahiym El-Caleel

I am writing this emotional article with a heavy heart. Thousands of Nigerians are grieving a heart-wrenching pedicide that occurred in Kano State.

Hanifa Abubakar, 5, went missing on 3rd December 2021 while returning home from school. Her pictures flooded social media with a dear request that she be helped located. However, several weeks later, it turned out that she was actually kidnapped, and 6 million naira was demanded as ransom. Hanifa’s parents struggled to raise the ransom and deliver it to the kidnapper.

At the point of collecting the ransom on 20th January 2022, a 37-year old Abdulmalik Mohammed Tanko was arrested. Abdulmalik confessed that he was both Hanifa’s kidnapper and school proprietor. He further admitted that he had already killed Hanifa weeks ago with a rodent poison and buried her in a shallow grave in his school. He led security forces to the shallow grave, where the decomposed body of Hanifa was exhumed. She was beyond recognition as her body appeared to have been dismembered after the poisoning. She was afterwards given a befitting burial according to Islamic rites. Thousands of sympathizers are still mourning in extreme melancholy.

A few hours after Hanifa’s story was uncovered, a new case of pedicide was reported from Zaria. Shu’aibu Wa’alamu Ubandawaki, a Zaria-based businessman, reported that his 8-year old daughter, Asmau (alias Husna), has been killed by her abductors. He had also paid 3 million naira as ransom, but the kidnappers killed Husna anyway. Revelations later emerged that the kidnapper is their close neighbour.

Several months earlier, in May 2021, a 6-year old Mohammed Kabiru was kidnapped by his neighbour at Badarawa, in Kaduna State. This neighbour had received one million-naira ransom from Kabiru’s father but still proceeded to strangle the innocent boy. After detectives apprehended the kidnap gang, they admitted strangling the boy to death because one of the members of the criminal team feared that the boy recognized him.

Cases like this are too numerous to count. Even yesterday, the police in Kano interviewed a youth who said he had slaughtered a girl hawker after she recognized him.

Child abductors have lately developed the attitude of killing their innocent victims because they fear they might recognize them when freed. All that follows is a social media hashtag trend; a promise by the security forces to charge the suspects to court and then a brief silence before the next case arrives.

The homicide rate is skyrocketing in Northern Nigeria, and this is no thanks to our current system of governance. Since the transition of Nigeria to democracy in 1999, we see a judicial system that romances murderers with no fair regard to their victims. Despite democracy’s snail-speed judiciary to prosecute murderers, it frowns at executing them in the spirit of legal retribution.

This problem is not specific to Nigeria. It is a global curse. The governance system maintains a gentle approach to capital crimes by seeking to abolish the death penalty and public executions. Therefore, pressure groups like Amnesty International have sworn themselves as apologists of murderers. As a result, every nation is now reluctant in passing deserved death sentences, not to even talk of actually executing the death penalty. Only a handful of countries like China, Saudi, Iran and North Korea still practice public execution.

The UN-led democratic world of today considers public executions as a ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of punishment’. This is why everyone shies away from public executions. For potential murderers, this is quite a protective cover to go-ahead to kill whoever they want to kill! They have nothing to fear. Take anyone’s life if you wish, and the UN and Amnesty International will protect yours! Mahatma Gandhi ingloriously articulated that, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”. With this statement, Gandhi might have insensitively passed one of the greatest injustices upon the victims of human barbarism. An eye for an eye will rid the world of barbarians who have desires to pluck the eyes of their fellow humans. If we let barbarians keep their eyes, they will continue to pluck people’s eyes till the whole world becomes blind, and only barbarians will have eyes. At this time, they will have to start amputating people’s limbs since Mahatma Gandhi would decree, “a limb for a limb will make the whole world limbless”!

A life for a life is fair enough. This is what every fair legal system should maximally execute in the spirit of retribution. The only chance you have to keep your eye is when you don’t pluck anyone’s eyes. Similarly, the only chance you have to keep your life is when you don’t take anyone’s life.

Countries like the UAE, Bahrain and Bangladesh recently resumed public executions because they discovered that Gandhi’s, UN’s, and Amnesty International’s way is merely idealistic. After returning to power last year, the Taliban continued its public executions in Herat by hanging four bodies of kidnappers from cranes. They said it should serve as a lesson for other kidnappers. Nigeria is still massaging Evans, her revivalist billionaire kidnap kingpin. Yet we wonder why bandits in the forests are making a mockery of the Nigerian armed forces. Do we wonder why people like Abdulmalik are out there looking for the Hanifas they will kidnap for their financial welfare?

Nigeria’s constitution still maintains the death penalty for capital crimes like murder, mutiny, terrorism and treason. The courts are passing the judgements, but they are rarely executed. A Premium Times report in 2021 narrated that Nigeria’s correctional centres are housing 3,602 death-row inmates. Of course, these inmates will never be executed under this UN-subscribed Nigeria’s democracy. Some of them will naturally die in detention after living to a ripe octogenarian or nonagenarian age. Others will be pardoned by the state governors and the president at any time they so politically wish. The murderers will be re-integrated into society as if nothing had happened. Why shouldn’t they commit another murder? Why shouldn’t the next barbarian commit murder?

This ugly scenario is why some people take laws into their hands. They decide to avenge the murder of their loved ones so that they become the beneficiaries of this controversial protection of human life championed by the UN and Amnesty International. In some cases, security forces decide to be the courts themselves, thereby making extrajudicial killings of apprehended criminals. This is because they get tired of arresting the same criminals repeatedly for the same crimes.

Nigeria has decided not to make any changes to arrest this ugly situation. But, of course, there are good excuses like; even the United States has a snail-speed judiciary when it comes to executing death-row inmates. Out of its 2,474 death-row inmates, the US executed only 11 of them in 2021. All of them committed their capital crimes about thirty years ago. So, Nigeria would say, if this is in the US, what more of Nigeria?

Therefore, it is humane that we are boiling with rage over Hanifa and Husna’s deaths. Every sane individual would do the same. We are craving that the law legally executes their murderers. But we have to understand that the problem is systemic. We have to come together as both leaders and ordinary citizens to amend our ways. Our laws need to practically show to everyone that for every eye taken illegally, an eye will follow it legally. Murder begets state execution. This is the only practical way through which Nigeria can recover the depreciated value of human life in the eyes of barbarians.

Unless the death penalty and public executions resume for culpable homicides, potential murderers will continue to have a field day.

Ibrahiym A. El-Caleel wrote from Zaria, Kaduna State. He can be reached via caleel2009@gmail.com.