‘Why I locked up my son for years’

Police command in Kano has rescued a 32-year-old man, Ahmad Aminu from solitary confinement over suspicion of drug abuse.

Ahmad was allegedly confined in a room for seven years by his father who accused him of drug abuse.

The victim was rescued following an alarm raised by a concerned neighbour, Rahma, who alerted the police about the victim’s plight in confinement.

Though Daily Trust could not establish contact with Rahma at the time of filing this report, she was however heard in a 1 minute 30 seconds video clip circulating on Instagram expressing fulfillment at the rescue of the victim after seven years of solitary confinement.

The Spokesman, Kano Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa who confirmed the development told Daily Trust on Saturday that the victim was rescued Thursday afternoon at Farawa, a slum in Mariri area of Kumbotso Local Government area of the state.

According to Kiyawa, “On the 13/08/2020 at about 23:15hrs, information received revealed that one Aminu Farawa locked up his biological son, one Ahmed Aminu 30 years old of the same address inside his car garage within his house for about seven (7) years without proper feeding and health care.”

He said on receiving the information the team of Operation Puff-Adder attached to the command was mobilised and immediately swung into action and rescued the victim.

He said the victim was rushed to Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital Kano for treatment while his father was arrested.

Kiyawa said Malam Farawa had confessed to locking up his son for three years against the seven years being reported over allegations of drug abuse.

He, however, said the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Habu A. Sani, had ordered the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for Discrete Investigations.

When our correspondent visited the area where the victim was rescued, the house was under lock and the streets around the neighbourhood deserted with only a few people chatting in groups about the bizarre incident.

Our correspondent gathered that Ahmad and his immediate younger brother, Sagir Aminu, moved in with their father and his wife from Zoo Road to Farawa Arewa of Mariri, Kumbotso Local Government area of Kano State about 10 years ago after the death of their mother.

Some of the neighbours who spoke to our correspondent confirmed that the victim was into drugs before his alleged solitary confinement about seven years ago.

His younger brother said apart from being a drug addict, Ahmad was into ‘Daba’ and always engaged in street fights that left him with several scars in his body.

He said as a result of Aliyu’s drug addiction, his father took him to a rehabilitation centre with a view to help him quit his drug habit.

Sagir claimed that his brother got sick at the rehabilitation centre and was brought home unable to walk about five years ago and that several attempts to get him cured from the sickness before his father decided to confine his brother as he administered drugs on him.

Some of the neighbours who were present when the victim was rescued by the police said they shed tears because of the inhuman treatment that had been meted out on him while in confinement.

They said Aliyu who was the coach of their childhood football team in the neigbourhood had been reduced into a living skeleton with only skin covering his ‘almost visible bones.’

According to Malam Ya’u Yusuf, “I know him for about 10 years now; he used to be our football coach during our childhood days. He was a very popular, agile and active coach before he ventured into drugs.”

“From the time he started taking drugs we ceased to see him in the area until after some years we learnt that he had been returned home sick and unable to walk,” he said.

Yusuf said he shed tears when he saw his once agile coach being bundled into a police van excessively skinny.

“On Wednesday I was surprised when I saw him, he was exceptionally skinny, just a living skeleton of him was what I saw, which suggests how inhumanly he had been treated.”

Both Malam Dan’Azumi Musa and Adam Yakubu described Ahmad’s experience as very terrific, urging parents to always treat their children with fear of God.

Making a confessional statement when he was paraded by the Public Relations Officer of the Command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa on Friday at the commands headquarter in Bompai area of Kano metropolis, the father said he decided to keep his son caged for three years because he (son) was possessed by evil spirits.

Ibrahim an indigene of Okene Local Government of Kogi State said that his son had been on alternative medicine therapy over the evil spirit that possessed him since he started taking hard drugs seven years ago.

“Contrary to the information going round, I kept him for three years after he had started taking drugs about seven years ago and in a bid to get him cured I placed him on herbal medicine, local drugs, because they told me that it was evil spirits that was worrying him,” he said.

“My mistake was that I didn’t take him to the conventional hospital, and my wife had even confronted me over that. She insisted that I should take him to hospital but I didn’t listen” he confessed.