9 days after, police yet to arrest ‘killers’ of Sokoto butcher

The killers of the famous butcher in Sokoto State, Usman Buda have not been arrested, nine days after his gruesome murder.

Usman, a cow entrails trader at the Sokoto meat, fish and vegetable market popularly known as Kasuwan Dankure was mobbed to death at the Sokoto main abattoir, following an argument over a religious issue.

Usman was said to have preached to a beggar who was using the name of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in soliciting for alms and some of his colleagues disagreed with his position and labelled him blasphemer.

However, different witness accounts confided in Daily Trust that Usman did not blaspheme the Prophet (SAW) during the argument.

The spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, ASP Ahmad Rufa’i on Tuesday said there was no arrest so far made.

“We are still investigating the matter. But no arrest has been made yet,” he said.

A senior police officer privy to the investigation and craved anonymity confided in Daily Trust that some of the murderers had fled the town.

“We are investigating the matter but we learnt some of them have ran away,” he said

Meanwhile, the wife of the butcher, Lawiza Usman recalled her last moment with him.

In a phone interview, Lawiza told Daily Trust that her husband read the Holy Qur’an before leaving home for his business.

“When he came back from the Mosque after the dawn prayer, he read the Holy Qur’an after which he slept for some time.

“It was a call from the person he engaged to work on his farmland that had woken him up around 7am.

“He then prepared and left for the market. I escorted him to the door and prayed to Allah to grant him success and bring him back to us safely.

“Some minutes later, I received information about his death. I was shocked, disarrayed and confused because he left us not too long ago,” she said with tears rolling down to her cheeks.

According to her, Usman was not only a husband to her but a friend, advisor and also a close confidant.

“He did nothing without consulting me and he never hid anything from me.

“If there is any religious seminars organized in town, he would let me know because he loved attending such places during his lifetime,” she reminisced.

She however, appealed to the Sokoto State government to ensure her husband’s killers were arrested and prosecuted.

A cleric in the state, Sheikh Murtala Na-assada has alleged that those witnesses that have been giving account of how Usman was murdered were being threatened at the abattoir.

“Some of them are working at the abattoir and are receiving threats from other butchers that participated in the murder over their testimonies.

“They have reported the matter to the relevant security agency,” he said.

Sheikh Na-assada noted that there was another religious student who escaped being lynched because he rose in defence of Usman Buda.

“He is our student. He was only trying to defend Usman Buda and some people threatened to label him blasphemer, which led to a heated argument.

“It was our intervention that saved the situation. The case is now in the court.

“The government and the Sultanate Council must do something before this issue causes inter sectarian crisis in the state,” he said.