My husband was killed for his honesty – Wife of slain Zazzau council member

The deceased’s car and body were discovered by a combined security and community search team last week Friday around 3:50pm at his farm near Maigiginya in Nariya, Kabala West, Kaduna with a gunshot wound on his head.
The area has suffered several attacks by unknown gunmen, the most recent being the attack on a petrol station manager, who was killed and  an undisclosed amount of money carted away and the killing of a lecturer with the Shehu Idris College of a Health Technology both of which occurred in Kinkinau GRA, Ungwan Muazu district, Kaduna.
Narrating her ordeal to our correspondent at their family home in Unguwan Mua’zu, Zuwaira, a mother of four – Bishir, 18, Aisha, 16, Hauwau, 12 and Buhari, 6 – said her late husband of 19 years was the family bread-winner.
“My husband’s death has taken a great toll on our lives; he was the family bread-winner, a good father. On that very day, he left home in the morning after telling me that he was going to his farm located in Kabala West near Maigiginya to see some people who were working on his corn and that is the last time I saw him as he did not come back that day,” the bereaved woman told Weekly Trust.
“Some people said he came back and left again after 4pm but I did not see him, it had become a tradition for him to call me and tell me where he was going and tell me if it does get not late he will come back, but if it does he will sleep out but will immediately call me in the morning to find out if everyone is okay. Unfortunately, on that day he did not call me and I knew something was wrong because it was very unusual,” she added.
“I called his phones severally but could not get through so I called a friend by name Jarma, who also confirmed to me that he also tried to reach him but he was not successful, he then called the district head to confirm if he had sent him somewhere and there was no network coverage but he said he had not seen him since Thursday (last week) and that was the day he was killed,” the widow narrated.
“It was on Friday morning that we started looking for him at the police station and other places he might have gone too with no luck. Finally, our first child, Bishir, went to his farm and found his car empty with the key in the ignition and his robe inside the car. I called to find out if he had found his father but he answered no and said he has found his car and robe but his father was nowhere in sight so I instructed him to call the district head and tell him what he had found after he did, he was told to call the police. He did and I also called some of his friends and they searched the whole place, it was around 4pm that his corpse was found in the farm, it was brought back and he was buried according to Islamic right around 6pm on the same day,” she said.
Asked if she has any inclination as to why her husband was murdered, she said: “It is a very shocking period for me and my children but we have left everything in the hands of Allah.It will not be well with the person who killed my husband.In the 19years I have been married to him, I have never heard him fighting with people and he was killed because he stood on by the truth because if someone comes to him to connive with him to cheat someone else, he will not be a part of it including talks on land or houses and I can attest to that because he will never do such a thing.”
Zuwaira added that: “He was into property business, including the selling and buying of land and houses, so it is possible that someone wanted him to sell a plot of land or a house to him even though he had already entered into contract with another person and he refused, which made them kill him, many people can bear witness that he was not that kind of person.”
She described her late husband as a humble, quite and hardworking man and prayed Allah to grant him paradise for his good deeds. “No one plans the day he dies except Allah, so my husband died without leaving a place for us to stay, as I speak to you now, the rent of this house is due, he was planning to pay the rent went this unfortunate incident happened. I am a complete housewife and I have no means of livelihood, my first child who just finished secondary school also has nothing doing, our faith now is in the hands of Allah,” she said, sobbing.
The bereaved woman said her husband came from a large family called Yaro Buhari in Sabuwar Kasa in Katsina State and was the third 23 children. He was the sole provider for his aged mother who is no longer in his late father’s house and his younger siblings.
For Bishir, who was in the search party that found his father’s body, said: “I was very sad when we finally found the corpse of my father, I found him lying on his back. When I got to the farm, I saw his car, but his battery had been removed, I called my mother and told her and we started searching the whole farm and when we did not find him we thought they kidnapped him so that we can pay a ransom. They shot him in the head but his two hands also had gunshot wounds, I think he covered his ears with his two hands and then they shot the bullet which penetrated his two hands and his head.”
Bishir added that: “I just finished my secondary school and I am struggling from one end to another and patching work in satellite repair where some days I get some money and some days I don’t. I learnt his friends recovered N40, 000 from his pocket but we have not really sat down to iron out things since the incident happened, so the fate of myself, my mother and my other siblings is in the hands of God.”He called on well-meaning Nigerians and the government to come to their aid.
 “We closed from Council with him around 5pm on Thursday where I think he proceeded to his farm Maigiginya. His family later alerted us on Friday morning that he didn’t sleep at home. So, we reported to the police and commenced a search operation.His body was found inside his farm with his car parked around the farm round 3-4pm on Friday. We have left everything to God to judge whoever has hand in his death or any other innocent persons killed,” said the Cika Soron Zazzau and Hakimin Ungwan Muazu, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Idris.
On whether he is satisfied with the actions taken by the police to curtail the rampant killings in the area, Cika Soron Zazzau said: “Honestly I can’t say because I don’t think they are doing much to stop these killings in the society, they always say that they are searching for the killers but they never find them.”
Kaduna State police public relations officer, Aminu Lawal, confirmed the incident and said police took part in the search for the Dokaji and have commenced investigation into the killing.