More questions have continued to trail the murder of a Bauchi State indigene, Nafiu Hafiz Gorondo, killed in Kano allegedly by a housewife who was his ex-girlfriend, Hafsat Suraj, popularly known as Chuchu.
The victim was stabbed to death barely two weeks ago allegedly by Chuchu at their Unguwa Uku residence.
While the police identified the victim, Gorondo, as a domestic help to Chuchu’s husband, some said he was her business partner.
Followers of the suspect on her social media handles such as Tiktok and Instagram believe nothing other than intimate friendship existed between the two.
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Though the deceased’s father, Alhaji Hafiz Salisu, accused Chuchu’s husband, Dayyabu Abdullahi, of organising the killing, because, according to him, he (Dayyabu) owed his son some money, but many people believe that Gorondo was killed out of jealousy.
Findings by Daily Trust Saturday on Isa Dagwanje lane in Unguwa Uku where Chuchu was born revealed that she and Gorondo enjoyed an intimate relationship for a long time.
A resident who simply identified himself as Dagwanje told our correspondent that the two took the advantage of a business relationship and continued with their hidden love for a long period of time which the husband was not aware of or pretended as if nothing was happening.
Dagwanje said, “Gorondo was Hafsat’s ex-boyfriend. After she got married to another person, her Islamiyya teacher, Malam Dayyabu, the relationship with Gorondo took a new turn and became a business/love affair.
“We used to see them together in their car. And sometimes he (Gorondo) comes to her parent’s house. It was later that we got to know that they were conducting business together to the extent that they lived in the same apartment.”
Findings revealed that the relationship got sour when Gorondo expressed desire to get married to a woman from his native Bauchi State and Chuchu was vehemently opposed to it.
When Daily Trust Saturday visited the house where the victim and the suspect were residing at Unguwa Uku, neighbours told our correspondent that they didn’t know that Chuchu and Gorondo were not married until when the incident occurred.
A woman said, “Throughout the time they stayed in this house we thought they were married until when this tragic incident happened. We knew Gorondo very well. He was a kind person as he sometimes used to stay outside and play with our children.”
Another neighbour who also preferred to remain anonymous said, “Since when they relocated to this house they were not even mingling with us (neighbours). We didn’t even know that there was another man in the house apart from the deceased. That was why we assumed that he was the husband of Chuchu. We always saw them together.”
Daily Trust Saturday found that the victim was neither a house help nor a driver to Chuchu’s husband as was reported.
Dagwanje explained that, “Gorondo was a successful businessman who dealt in soft drinks and medicine. He had never been a house help to Chuchu’s husband. I can even exaggerate by saying that the husband was a ‘boy’ to the deceased as he was the one that facilitated and connected Dayyabu to Chinese people in Kwari Market.”
Daily Trust Saturday visited one of the suspect’s shops at a shopping mall on Zoo Road, where she sells abayas and perfumes.
Her neighbours there explained that the shop was run by both Chuchu and Gorondo.
A neighbor said, “She sometimes stayed in the shop, and at times they stayed together. Unless recently they got a sales girl who oversees the shop. We thought they were married.”
My daughter has psychiatric problem – Chuchu’s mum
When Daily Trust Saturday contacted Chuchu’s mother, Hajiya Hajara Suraj, she said her daughter had a psychiatric problem.
Hajiya Hajara said, “Everybody knows that my daughter has a psychiatric problem. Even her Islamiyya and secondary school teachers have the record of her problem. She sometimes gets out of her senses and does a lot of things. She even has a file in a psychiatric hospital at Dawanau.”
She added that she knew nothing about the relationship between her daughter and the deceased other than the business relationship.
I doubt if only Chuchu killed my giant son – Deceased’s dad
The deceased’s father, Alhaji Hafiz Gorondo, doubted the way and manner in which Chuchu singlehandedly committed the act, urging the security to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to book.
He said, “I am still wondering how a small girl like Chuchu singlehandedly committed such an act without help from another person. I doubt much. If you look at late Nafiu, he was a giant; how could he allow such a small girl to attack and stab him severally to death.
It would be recalled that the Kano State Police Command arrested Chuchu for allegedly stabbing her “house help” to death.
In a statement, the command’s spokesperson, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, said the police received a report from the deceased’s father that he received a phone call from one Dayyabu Abdullahi that his son, Nafiu, was dead.
He explained that when the father arrived at the residence in Unguwa Uku, he discovered several stab injuries on the corpse.
He said the suspect confessed to have singlehandedly committed the act by stabbing the victim as he was trying to prevent her from committing suicide.
Similarly, her husband, Dayyabu Abdullahi, and their gateman, Adamu Mohammad, were arrested for aiding, packaging and concealing the corpse.
Meanwhile, the suspect and her suspected accomplices were Wednesday arraigned before a magistrates’ court sitting at Yankaba, Kano, where she pleaded guilty to the charge of attempt to commit suicide but pleaded not guilty to the charge of culpable homicide.
The Magistrate, Hadiza Abdurrahman, ordered that all the defendants be remanded in prison and adjourned the case to February 1, 2024.
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