Although it is now two years, the corrupt Nigerian Police Force in connivance with the political authorities in Abuja and Kano has deliberately refused to release even the preliminary report about who actually plotted the politically motivated assassination of one of Nigerian’s foremost and respected Islamic Scholar, late Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam. The Islamic scholar was murdered while leading the Subhi prayers in his Kano residential Mosque on Friday April 13, 2007. We can authoritatively reveal that the former administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo under the then Inspector General of Police Mr. Sunday Ehindero, the Kano State Emirate Council under His Royal Highness Alhaji Ado Bayero and indeed the Kano State Government knows why Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam was assassinated in cold-blood and indeed the sponsor of this dastardly assassination.
We can confirm from the overwhelming evidence gathered during the period under review that the Kano State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, who is supposedly an advocate of the Sharia implementation through an expensive programme called A Daidaita Sahu and the creation of the Hisbah group through which billions of naira in Kano State wealth was wasted and siphoned, was the one that plotted and sponsored the cold-blooded assassination of the late Islamic Cleric. It has become clear that prior to the April 2007 gubernatorial election which saw Governor Shekarau in a desperate and frantic effort to return as governor for the second time by all means, the late Sheikh Ja’afar had become one of the most visible threat capable of making it impossible for Mallam Shekaru to get re-elected. Considering the late cleric’s large followership, his authority and the influence he commands in Kano State and beyond, Shekarau realized that his disagreement with Sheikh Ja’afar may cause him his ambition to rule Kano State beyond 2007 and therefore the need to plot a permanent solution against the cleric became inevitable. That was how the plot to eliminate Sheikh Ja’afar from the face of the earth was conceived, orchestrated and executed.
The unprecedented orgy of murderous rampage at both Panshekara, the headquaters of Federal Road Safety Commission as well as in Sharada Police Station where innocent souls were mercilessly murdered few days before the brutal assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar were organised to cover the plan of his assasination and to eventually justify that his murder was not politically motivated and that it was perpetrated by rival Islamic sect.
Unfortunately for the Shekarau government, there was no evidence even after the assassination to suggest or to agree with the police and the Kano State Governemnt that the attack was carried out by an unknown rival Islamic Sect. The sophistication of the assasins and the automatic AK47 they used against Sheikh Ja’afar clearly shows that they were paid to kill the Islamic Scholar. And if the attack was perpetrated by a rival Islamic sect as the authorities insinuate and fabricated, all the faithfulls in the mosque would have been killed. But their target was only Sheikh Ja’afar and as soon as they were satisfied that he did not survive the multiple gun shots, they left the scene.
Misunderstanding between Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and late Sheikh Ja’afar became sour when the late Scholar realised that Governor Shekarau was not sincere about the implementation of Shariah and that he uses the Hisba Board as a conduit pipe thereby making nonsense of the Islamic legal system. The irreconcilable disagreement forced Sheikh Ja’afar to resign his appointment as a member of the Hisbah Board and since then, he became a consistent critic of Shekarau’s unislamic conduct and mismanagement of the public resources by accusing him of using Islam to deceive and mislead the people. It has not, ofcourse, gone down well with Shekarau who began to look for several options of dealing with Sheikh Ja'afar. Attempts to make him compromise through inducement had also failed.
What probably caused Jafar his life was his decision and threat at the peakk of the election season to expose the massive financial scam carried out through the Hisbah by Mallam Shekarau. The late scholar had also accused eminent clerics of benefitting so much against Islam and the masses and threatened to expose the huge scam. That was what caused him his life because Govenror Shekarau knew that the late cleric as a former privileged member of the Hisbah board was in possession of damaging dossiers and he was fully convinced that Sheikh Ja’afar had the moral credibility to convince and change the opinion of the people of Kano against him. Having tried him several times, Shekarau also knew that Sheikh Ja’afar was not the kind of cleric that can be compromised with financial inducement. That was how the decision to eliminate him was taken. Mallam Shekarau had tried unsuccessfully to induce Sheikh Ja’afar like he has done to other Islamic clerics but couldn't get him. Even the hitherto vocal chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia Dr. Datti Ahmed was bribed and compromised by Shekarau when the former insisted on exposing the killers of the cleric. Since then, Dr. Datti remained quiet and abandoned the struggle.
In fact, among all the national dailies in Nigeria particularly the northern based ones, only the Desert Herald newspaper that was bold enough to criticize the Kano State Governor and the Nigerian Police Force regarding the assasiantion of late Sheikh Ja’afar. The recent edition of Desert Herald which were cleverly indirect because of the dictatorial and murderous tendencies of the government, shows clearly the people that were responsible for the murder of Sheikh Ja’afar. Nigeria is the only country where leaders will commit all kinds of crimes openly yet the people will be afraid to say the truth because of fear or greed. As clearly demonstrated in the confessional statement below, the contract for the assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam was awarded to one Alhaji Abba Gana by Governor Ibrahim Shekarau at the cost of one hundred million naira. It was Alhaji Abba Gana that contracted one Mallam Tijjani Garba who was already widely known as a hired killer by the police authorities to execute the plot at the cost of fifty million naira. The Job was successfully carried out by Tijjani Garba but the police under the then leadership of Mr. Sunday Ehindero uncovered the plot after it was executed and threatened to expose the scandal if Governor Shekarau failed to under take a bargain. It was monetary as well as a political bargain. And the former president Olusegun Obasanjo was fully involved and co-opted.
When Governor Shekarau leant that Tijjani Garba have made a confessional statement in the force headquarters and incriminated him, he immediately contacted Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and began to penetrate the force Headquarters through his ADC. We reliably gathered that Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau gave another sum of one hundred million naira through his ADC to Mr. Ehindero to destroy all incriminating confession and documents that showed his involvement and to thereafter frustrate the case.
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Chief Obasanjo was also approached by Shekarau to assist in killing the case. it is a well known fact in security circles that the former president who was directly or indirectly involved in the assassinations of Chief Bola Ige, Harry Marshal and Chief Chuba Okadigbo. He demanded Shekarau to ensure that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua won the 2007 presidential election in Kano by all means as a condition of his intervention. Chief Obasanjo out rightly told Shekarau that he must ensure that General Muhammadu Buhari is defeated in Kano and asked the governor to decamp to the PDP. While the governor pleaded no to do the latter, he accepted and work vigorously against General Buhari at the presidential polls. We can also authoritatively report that Governor Shekarau because of similar reason also accepted to fund the Yar’Adua Campaign including printing and placement of bill boards. That was the reason he went against General Buhari and not because of his disagreement with the former General as he claimed in interviews.
Alhaji Abba Gana who was directly contracted by Governor Shekarau to kill Sheikh Ja’afar and who subsequently contracted the job to an expert, Tijjani Garba, also handles Shekarau’s illegal businesses. Abba Gana was once arrested in London with the sum of ten million pounds belonging to Governor Shekarau on his way to deposit the money at HSBC Bank London and Royal Bank of Scotland. The money laundering scandal was later referred to Nigeria but the police took advantage of the situation, benefited immensely and frustrated the case. It was among the reasons the then Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu indicted and disqualified Shekarau but he was eventually rescued by Chief Obasanjo because of the sealed deal of ensuring Yar'Adua's victory in Kano by all means.
Governor Ibrahim Shekarau is believed to have diverted over thirty billon naira belonging to the Kano State Government and through the local Government Joint Account in Six years through fraudulent programmes like the Hisbah and A Daidaita Sahu. While he has also generated billions of naira internally, what he had done so far is not commensurate with the billions of naira he has collected. He had become so dictatorial, autocratic and deceptive over the years.
What remains to be seen is serious efforts by the Nigerian authorities to investigate the Volume of allegations and confessional statements which openly confesses the involvement of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau in brutal murder of Sheikh Ja’afar . May be not in the present dispensation because President Yar’Aua has not yet commenced even the process of doing justice to the innocent souls of imminent Nigerians like Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Harry Marshal, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam and Chief Bola Ige that were snuffed out by his predecessor. Being a beneficiary of Shekarau's largesse coupled with the electoral fraud in his favour in Kano, Yar'Adua is also not likely to investigate Shekarau's glaring involment in the murder of Sheikh Ja'afar.
But from the evidence so far before the Nigerian Police and which were distorted, the present Kano State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is the masterminder of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam’s assassination and it was purely for political reasons. But for how long will he remain as the governor of Kano State? Watch out for more details.
*Citizen Reports are not directly investigated, verified or vetted by Saharareporters
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