Sibling of murdered ABU Don: ‘My brother was killed with poison injection’

But on Tuesday, June 8, 2010, at about 12:30 pm, Musa’s dead body was found behind a petrol station at Shika, the host village of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) along the Zaria-Gusau road, with some substances indicating that the university lecturer was murdered.

The deceased’s younger brother, Malam Abubakar Tukur, recounted to Weekly Trust how news of his brother was broken to the family. “On that Tuesday, mourning after my brother had left home, his wife called to tell him that there was no chicken feed as the family maintains a poultry. He went and bought the feeds. After delivering the feeds, he left his car at home and walked to the main road where he took a motorbike.   

“When my brother left home, our assumption was that he went to his office in the main campus of the University since he resides in the ABU staff quarters in Area A. However, it didn’t occur to us to ask him why he was leaving his two cars at home to take a motorbike. We didn’t realize that until the news of his death filtered. Nobody can tell how and why he was killed because nobody was there to see how the episode unfolded,” Abubakar said.

Abubakar said from what the family gathered, when Dr Tukur took a motorbike, he went to his tailor in Samaru, the host town of the ABU main campus. Abubakar said that when his brother went to the tailor’s shop, he had wanted to collect the school uniform of his children but as the tailor told him that the clothes would not be ready till the following day, he left without making further inquiries. According to Abubakar, the tailor had told the family that he could not tell whether Dr Tukur left with the motorbike that brought him to the shop or he took another one.

“The tailor was the last person to see my brother. We were at home at about 12noon on that Tuesday when a call came asking us to come to Shika. I was not at home but my other siblings went to meet the shock that may take a very long time to either be absorbed or forgetting. On arrival at the scene of the murder, they were accosted with the dead body of my brother,” Abubakar explained in tears. “They said a bottle of Novan injection was found by the side of the body with bruises on his wrist indicating that he was tied up before being murdered,” Abubakar added.

According to Abubakar, there were many indications to make them suspect that their sibling was murdered. First, he said, there were bruises around his wrist.

“Second, there was the sum of N30,000 with him but the murderers did not take a penny out of the money. And lastly, as I said earlier, a bottle of Novan injection was found by the side of his body. These things, matched together, are enough to make us suspect that my brother was murdered for a reason best known to the assailants,” Abubakar said.

Explaining further, Abubakar said no part of his brother’s body was tampered with, adding to their suspicion of murder.

A medical doctor at the university who doesn’t want to be named, however, said it would be difficult to believe that Dr Tukur was killed by the Novan injection.

“When a person is killed through a poison injection, there would be foam that would be coming out from his mouth before he dies. Such foam was not found on Dr Tukur’s mouth. This is why we are suspecting that the murderers might have just kept the bottle of the Novan injection to make people believe that he was killed by the injection. An autopsy has been conducted. When the result is out, we would be able to say what actually happened,” the doctor said.

A colleague of Dr Tukur, Malam Musa Ridwan, extolled the virtues of the deceased saying that “everyone of us is kept in the dark as we cannot guess what would make someone to kill a gentleman like Malam (Dr Tukur).” The ABU Information Officer, Mr Bitrus Galmaka, said that it is the ongoing investigations that would determine what actually happened. Mr Galmaka sympathized with the family of the deceased and prayed praying for the repose of his soul.

Until investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Tukur is concluded, his death will remain a mystery as no one can say with precision, why and how the Islamic Studies lecturer was killed.