The family of a 67-year-old Adamu Babanta who was allegedly killed by his friend and the former Bauchi State Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Damina has dragged the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, CP Umar Sanda to the Nigeria Police Service Commission for allegedly compromising investigation by charging the suspect with accident case instead of intentional killing to justify his release.
A petition tagged “A Cry For Help and Timely Intervention” addressed to the chairman, Nigeria Police Service Commission, was written against CP Sanda, SP Ahmad Buba, the O.C Motopol (MTD) unit and Sergeant Livinus Emmanuel who is the IPO in the case.
The petition was signed by their lawyer, Alkassim Muhammad Esq dated 31st October 2022 and copied to the governor of Bauchi State, the state Chief Judge, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Director, State Security Services, Bauchi and the Human Rights Commission was made available to newsmen, Tuesday in Bauchi.
The family requested the Police Service Commission to suspend CP Sanda and two other police officers handling the case for being compromised.
They also asked that the respondents be investigated by the commission to secure justice for the deceased and his family.
When contacted, the police commissioner said: “We are still investigating as to whether the suspect deliberately hit the deceased or it was an accident. If our investigation reveals that he deliberately hit him with intent to cause injury or death, we will charge him for culpable homicide. But for now, investigation reveals that the deceased died due to injuries he sustained from the accident. Whatever comes up in the course of the investigation, we will tell the public.”
Asked whether the hospital had requested the police to release the suspect, CP Sanda said: “…don’t forget that this case is an accident case and he has spent seven days in police custody.
We had to get a court order to keep him this long. We released him because his continuous stay in police custody might cause harm to him because he was very sick so we decided to grant him bail. I can assure you that we will charge him to court.”
