There are several versions of the story surrounding his death with the police authorities saying he shot himself to death. Some other sources speculate he must have been gunned down in his cell.
DSP Nanbol Audu, the police officer in charge of the Kaduna State Police Command’s armaments who has arrested last week, was found dead in the early hours of today.
Audu was arrested for allegedly attempting to steal weapons from the armory on October 20.
There are several versions of the story surrounding his death with the police authorities saying he shot himself to death. Some other sources speculate he must have been gunned down in his cell.
One of his relatives, who called our New York office on the development, insisted that he was killed, pointing out that he could not have shot himself because he had been handcuffed since he was arrested.
“I will supply you photographs our family collected from the media in Kaduna this afternoon,” he explained. “He has been hand-cuffed throughout, how can hand-cuffed man shoot himself to death? Where did he get a gun in detention to carry out the act by killing himself?
“It is clear something is wrong and we will want to know the whole thing that happened and the truth, it is unfortunate and pathetic.”
All our efforts to reach the Kaduna State police commissioner by phone from New York failed as he was said to be busy.
Below is what police authorities said on DSP Nanbol Audu last week in Nigeria:
On 20th October,2014 at about 2230hours, the Command's Armament Officer, DSP Nanbol Audu came to the Armory with two unknown persons in a private vehicle, parked behind the Armory and loaded some firearms into the vehicles. Policemen on guard suspected foul play and immediately stopped the vehicle from leaving the premises.
"Upon interrogation, the State Armament Officer could not give satisfactory account of his action which led to his arrest and the two other occupants of the vehicle one Zingkur Joseph of Trade Centre Jos and Samuel Adamu of Kuru Jos-South Local Government Area of Plateau State, respectively. During search at the spot, 11 G3 Rifles already concealed under the vehicle seat were recovered.
“Further investigation revealed that, one of the two civilian suspects is a blacksmith who specialize in manufacturing locally made firearms. The two suspects came from Jos, Plateau State on arrangement to purchase the said firearms from the Armament Officer at the cost of N400,000."