Sa’adatu: New Twist Emerges
New twists emerge in investigations into the murder of Sa’adatu, wife of Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, thus pitching the famed politician against the police
By Suleiman Anyalewechi, Kano

Abubakar Rimi

As anxious and apprehensive Nigerians await the unmasking of the killers of Lagos State frontline governorhsip aspirant, Chief Funso Williams, a new twist appears to have enveloped the efforts of the police in tracking down the real killers of the wife of Second Republic Governor of old Kano State, Hajia Sa’adatu Abubakar Rimi. Sa’adatu was on January 8, 2006, killed by a yet-to-be established gang of four assassins at the Kano residence of the Rimis.
According to reports, the assassins had gained entry into her private room on the fateful day while her husband Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, was away in Kaduna attending a Northern Elders Forum meeting and killed her by slicing her throat. The high profile murder which shocked many, saw Rimi accusing some highly placed Federal Government officials of masterminding it. In the course of its investigation, the police had arrested and detained some people in connection with the murder. Among those arrested were Alhaji Aminu Baba Dan Agundi, a former Emir of Kano palace official and kingmaker, Malam Aminu Dan Bello, Malam Tasiu Ibrahim and 11 others. The arrested persons were subsequently – after several months in detention both in Kano and Abuja – arraigned before a Kano Chief Magistrate court on charges of alleged complicity in the murder of the wife of the former Minister of Communications under the regime of late General Sani Abacha.
Penultimate week, however, a new dimension appeared in the murder drama when the police said it has apprehended the real killers of Hajia Sa’adatu. It was, indeed, a big surprise when on Friday, August 2, the police authorities arraigned before the court three family members of Alhaji Rimi, accusing them of being the real killers of Hajia Sa’adatu. The three suspected killers are Abubakar Mohammed Rimi, Mustapha Mohammed Rimi and Hamisu Jingiri. Although the court adjourned proceedings in the case to August 18, The Source authoritatively gathered the arrest of the Rimi family members was the outcome of serious police investigations in the last few months. Sources last week revealed that the Deputy Inspector General of Police, (DIG), Ogbonnaya Onovo-led police investigation team in its determined efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding the gruesome murder of the 48-year-old Adamawa State-born Sa’adatu, has solicited the assistance of Interpol in its investigations. Upon arrival, the about four man team from Interpol were said to have visited the Rimi residence – the scene of the murder. They were said to have discovered that there were about five dogs in the compound, which, however, didn’t bark on the night of the incident and therefore concluded that the crime may have been committed by insiders, who are well known to the dogs. According to them, the dogs could have barked on the night of the incident were total strangers at the fore-front of the dastardy act and therefore concluded that the crime may have been committed by insiders who are well-known to the dogs. Besides, their feeling of an insiders job was further strengthened by the discovery that no part of the Rimi residence was tampered with, in terms of breakage in the process of killing Sa’adatu. Based on these findings, the deterctives from Interpol were said to have advised the Nigerian police investigation team to focus its search-light on members of Rimi’s family. Subsequently, the police was said to have placed all Rimi’s family members on strict surveillance, including the monitoring of their phone lines.
Their efforts were said to have paid off last month, when a lady was apprehended in Zaria, following a telephone call she received. According to sources, the lady had received the call with late Sa’adatu’s GSM line and following the content of the discussion, the GSM service provider was said to have alerted the police, which subsequently moved in to arrest the lady. Upon interrogation, the lady allegedly told the police that it was her boyfriend who gave her the late Sa’adatu’s phone as a gift. The police was to later recover from her during a search in her apartment, some jewelries belonging to Sa’adatu which she also claimed was given to her by the same boyfriend, who turned out to be Rimi’s nephew, Mustapha Mohammed Rimi.
The arrest and interrogation of Rimi’s nephew was said to have led to the arrest of Rimi’s son, Abubakar Mohammed Rimi and Hamisu Jingiri, as accomplicies to the murder.
Before now, however, the police had arrested, detained and arraigned Alhaji Dan Agundi, Malam Dan Bello and Malam Tasiu Ibrahim and 11 others for alleged complicity in the murder. Specifically, Agundi, who is a close friend of the Defence Minister, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and District Head of Gabasawa, was on January 15 this year arrested by the police based on alleged GSM text message received from an informant accusing him of involvement in the murder. It was, however, discovered that the same informant has also used the same GSM line to send text message about 14 times to Agundi, abusing him even before the murder of Sa’adatu.
Similarly, Bello got connected to the case through the same GSM text message connection as he was alleged to be the owner of the GSM line that was used in informing the police that Agundi should beheld responsible for the murder. Funny enough, the only basis so far for the arrest, detention and trial of Ibrahim remains that someone had claimed that in his dream, he was informed that Ibrahim was among those who killed Sa’adatu.
But while the recent arraignment of the Rimi’s family members, in connection with Sa’adatu’s murders may have come to many as a surprise, not a few are equally not shocked. For one, at the heat of the controversy that trailed the gruesome murder, many had suspected an insider’s connection. Indeed, The Source gathered that their suspicion especially among those close to the family arose from a deep knowledge of the rift among some of the family members, especially between the deceased and some of Rimi’s children. Speculations were then rife that the woman – going by the fact that no part of the Rimi’s house was damaged during the operation – may have been a victim of a family feud. Such feelings were somehow reinforced by the sudden death a few days after the murder of Sa’adatu, of Rimi’s eldest son, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar Rimi in a rather mysterious manner. Although so many tales were weaved around his death, not a few were and still are of the view that there is, perhaps, more to the sudden death of the younger Rimi than anyone could explain. One such explanation was that Adamu may have hit his head on the wall while in the toilet, resulting in him relapsing into coma as a result of over bleeding only to be later confirmed dead at clinic in Kano a few hours later. But despite this theory and many others being considered by the police in its efforts to track-down the killers of Sa’adatu, Rimi has continued to stridently accuse some Abuja-based Kano politicians of masterminding his wife’s murder.
In one of such several statements, the former Governor of old Kano State, said the real killer of his wife was someone who used to be a bigman in Kano but is now a bigman in Abuja, “adding that the killing was politically motivated.”
Alhaji Rimi further noted that the real target of both of the masterminds and executioners of the murder was him, with his wife only falling victim when they could not get him at home. Although Rimi avoided mentioning names of the alleged killers, many were nonetheless certain that he was, indeed, pointing at the direction of former Governor of Kano and now Defence Minister, Alhaji Kwankwaso and some chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from Kano State. Instructively, Rimi and Kwankwaso have been poles apart politically, right from the time when the later was Kano State governor, between 1999 and 2003. Although their differences commenced in 1999, following disagreements concerning political and party appointments, which Rimi felt was not favourable to his SPP group, they however climaxed late last year during the PDP re-registration exercise. The exercise had seen Rimi and many other chieftains of the party in Kano, like former Minister of Labour, Alhaji Musa Gwadabe and former speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba, marginalised as well as denied registration. The former Minister of Communication, promptly blamed the development on Kwankwaso, whom he accused of being used by President Olusegun Obasanjo to fight him and others perceived to be opposed to the president. Although before now, Rimi had avoided mentioning the name(s) of alleged killers of his wife, the arraignment of some of his family members penultimate week in connection with the murder has somewhat altered that stance.
In a move that shocked and equally peeved many, Rimi pointedly accused Kwankwaso of killing his wife, at a time the case is already in court. In a press statement issued on Monday, August 7 in Kano, the former chieftain of PDP but now of the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), faulted the police investigation which indicted some of his family members in the killing of his wife, noting that the Defence Minister, Kwankwaso and not his son killed Sa’adatu.
According to Rimi, there was and still no misunderstanding among his family members, adding that apart from Mustapha Rimi (his nephew) no member of his family was involved in the murder.
In the statement, Rimi further faulted the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sunday Ehindero’s observation that Sa’adatu’s murder was not politically motivated, adding that he is not surprised at the IG’s position, going by the way he (IG) shunned him (Rimi) recently.
Exonerating his son from the murder allegation, Rimi said, “I believe that my son is innocent as the police equally know. They only roped him in to create false a impression that the issue is a family affair. It is not a family affair. Are all the people being accused and standing trial members of my family? Police investigations have not found any direct and or indirect link between my son and the murder.”
However, with the trial of all the suspects, including the Rimi family members, expected to fully commence on August 18, more facts about the gruesome murder of Sa’adatu may soon be let out.