Friends: Our last moments with inspector killed by IPOB

Some friends of Inspector Rufa’i Adamu, the police officer killed on Thursday by members of the proscribed IPOB described him as an easy-going person and gentleman to the core who had zero tolerance for corruption and indiscipline.

Malam Hassan, a resident of Agege in Lagos told Daily Trust that he knew the slain officer for over eight years. “Even though I am not a policeman but I interacted with a lot of them. I have never seen a policeman like him. In fact, he is the best among all the policemen I know; he never involved himself in any illegality. 

“He was a gentleman to the core, very simple and decent; you won’t even know he was a policeman if you saw him. One thing I noticed about him was his simplicity – he used to fetch water for his family. You would see him carrying a jerrican of water and also went to refill their cooking gas cylinder which he carried himself.

“My last day with him was the very day he went on that journey. I saw him early in the morning of Tuesday praying inside Lawal Atana’s Mosque located at Oniwaya Junction, Capitol Road Agege, Lagos. We couldn’t exchange greetings as I saw him from afar.  

“My prayer is that government should compensate his family. It should take care of his family. He has four children and a wife; his children are very young. The eldest among them is just 12 years old. The government should do something about them, as he depended only on his salary and so couldn’t have left anything for them,” he said.

Alhaji Umar Atana, the chairman of Atana Mosque committee told Daily Trust that he knew the deceased for a long time but never knew that he was a policeman until after the sad incident.

“We always prayed together in this mosque. I didn’t even know that he was a police officer. My last moment with him was when he brought some honey for me to buy. I own a restaurant. I asked him to go and package the honey well. That was my last moment with him.

“We are very saddened by what those people did to him, and we want the government to make sure the killers are brought to book. 

“The government should also compensate his family. I learned that his parents are late but he left behind a wife and four children. They will need someone to take care of them. I urge the government to consider his children for welfare,” he said. 

The police are yet to contact us – Widow

Fa’iza Amadu Barau, the widow of the slain police officer, told Daily Trust that six days after the murder of her husband, the police authorities are yet to contact the family officially regarding his death.

She said: “He was attached to the owner of Young Shall Grow Company; they were 14 policemen who were attached. Seven will work for some days while the rest will be off work and vice versa.  

“He told me that the man who owns Young Shall Grow was going to his hometown in Nnewi, Anambra State, for burial and they were asked to go with him.

 “He said they were told to be very careful over there due to the insecurity in the region; that they should not even go out to buy recharge cards unless they were in a team. He narrated this to me and I told him God will protect him,” she said.

According to her, the next day, Monday, he went out for work and came back on Tuesday and the next day he left for the journey early in the morning, and they arrived in Anambra that same day.

“I even spoke with him on phone around 10pm and the next day in the morning, that was on Thursday. But later I called his number but it was not going through. It was in the evening that I learned that he was murdered. It was his brother who is also a policeman that told me that my husband had been killed. God will revenge on his death. 

“I was traumatized when I saw the video of what they did to my husband. May God forgive his faults. But they have finished our lives,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Describing her husband as a good police officer who depended only on his salary and was never involved in anything illegal, she said: “He never owned a house anywhere; he used his salary to take care of me and our four children as they were deducting from his salary for many months. We did not enjoy his salary as an inspector.”

Fa’iza urged the government to bring the killers of her husband to book. She also wants the authorities to assist the children he left behind.

A police officer who is a friend to the deceased who doesn’t want his name in print told Daily Trust that the slain officer and his colleagues were attacked while they were on their way to the airport to pick the owner of Young Shall Grow company.

He said the attackers opened fire on the convoy of three vehicles, adding: “The two vehicles behind managed to turn back to a police station, while they left the attackers with the escort vehicle. 

“To my surprise, the police did not re-enforce back. Those in the escort vehicle were left in the hands of their attackers till they killed them, cut their heads and burnt their bodies. 

“There was no attempt by the police or any other security agents to rescue them, this is so surprising to me,” he said.

He said he knew the deceased for over eight years. “I knew him as a very kind and honest officer, he was a gentleman,” he said.

The federal government through the  Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed had accused the separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), of killing Rufa’i and his colleague.

The video showing the beheading of the officers was shared online last weekend, sparking debate about the group’s activities in the south East region. Some sources said the assailants also ate the meat of the deceased after killing them.

Lai Mohammed said in a statement on Monday, November 29, 2021, that IPOB’s militant wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN), was responsible for the gruesome act.