‘I killed medical doctor because he recognised, called my name’

Looking calmly into the stern faces of policemen interrogating him, Hammed Jamiu said: “I had no plan to kill Doctor Tunde Abdulrahman, but I was left with no choice! He identified me. I had to kill him. He pulled off his blindfold, recognised and called my name. I had to shoot him.”

With these words, Hammed, an ex-convict, sealed his fate by admitting to murder. He had initially, consistently denied murdering Abdulrahman.

The suspect, who was arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police’s Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), had earlier taken the police on a wild goose chase. In fact, he even showed police bones of a cow, claiming it was those of the missing doctor.

The family of Abdulrahman is still reeling in shock over his death and confession of Hammed. In their wildest imaginations, they never thought he could be behind the demise of the doctor.

Hammed is the son of a security guard, Mohammed Jamiu, who had been working with the doctor’s family for 10 years. The security guard is like a family.

The horrifying drama that consumed Abdulrahman started on July 2016, when he was abducted and later murdered. 

Abdulrahman, until his death, worked at Omu-Aran General Hospital, Irepodun area of Kwara State. He suddenly went missing in July, plunging his family into untold worry and anxiety.

It would be later discovered that he was abducted by three armed men. The men were said to have stormed Abdurrahman’s father’s house, located at Tanke area of Ilorin, Kwara State and whisked him away in his Toyota Corolla saloon car.

When his abductors didn’t contact his family a week after his kidnap, they feared the worst.

The family reported the matter to the Kwara State Police Command and Department of State Security (DSS).

Investigations started; the doctor’s phones, which got missing the same day he was abducted, were trailed to the home of Jamiu, the security guard working in Abdurrahman’s family compound.

Jamiu was arrested and in the course of interrogation, it was learnt that Hammed masterminded the abduction of Abdurrahman.  

Speaking on the case, a police source said: “When Hammed knew police were on his trail, he bolted to Sokoto State to hide. He was there for four months. He returned when he felt the dust has settled and policemen were no longer looking for him.”

Hammed was shocked out of his wits when operatives of IRT swooped on him just weeks after his return to Kwara State.

It was gathered that the operatives of IRT were instructed by the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to take over the case after the missing doctor’s family wrote a petition to him, explaining that their son had been missing for months.

The IRT operatives and investigation were led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr. Abba Kyari.

Another police source said: “Police trailed Hammed to a hideout in Omu-Aran. He had already regrouped with two other robbery suspects, Olusho Rotimi and Ayo Ayeni, who had been terrorising Kwara State. Hammed confessed to have abducted Dr. Abdulrahman, but refused to disclose where he kept him.”

It was the suspect’s unwillingness to show police where the supposed abducted victim was being held captive, that made them realised he had killed the doctor. The police changed their tactics and instead, started asking him to take them to where the doctor’s corpse was buried.

The source said: “Hammed’s investigation led to the arrest of several innocent persons. These people had no link to the crime, yet he kept mentioning their names. He even mentioned the name of a rich man, residing in Shagamu area of Ogun State. He claimed to have sold Abdurrahman’s corpse to the rich man for N400, 000.” 

Investigations, however, showed that Hammed had never had any dealing with the rich man.

“The suspect also took policemen to a forest in Kwara State, where he showed them some bones. He said they were remains of Dr. Abdulrahman; when the bones were taken for autopsy, they were those of a cow. Hammed also led policemen to Ijebu Ode, where a 24-year-old car snatcher, who had no link with the kidnapping of the doctor was arrested,” said the police source.     

While fielding questions from journalists, Hammed explained why he shot Abdulrahman.

His words: “When I was in prison, I became friendly with two men; Dayo and Yemi. They lured me into kidnapping after we left prison. Before prison, I was a car snatcher.  I stole several cars within Kwara and Oyo states.  I was arrested in 2015 and taken to prison, where I spent more than one year.”

After he and his friends regained their freedom, they had no job. Dayo suggested they should try their hands on kidnapping.

He recounted: “When Dayo mentioned kidnapping, I suggested we should kidnap the son of my father’s boss, who was a medical doctor. It was Dayo, who brought the guns we used in abducting the doctor from his father’s house.  My father wasn’t on duty when we went there. I waited outside; Dayo and Yemi went in and abducted him.  They blindfolded him.  We bundled him into his car and drove to a forest by Oke-Olowo. We were having an argument when Abdurrahman’s blindfold opened.

“He saw me and called my name. He even threatened to deal with me when he was out of our clutches. I shot him.  He didn’t die instantly. We took him to a spot within the forest and dumped him there.  I took his car and sold it to one Alhaji for N280, 000.  I also took his phones with me.  A month after we killed him, operatives of DSS came to our house in Oke-Ose. They arrested my father.  I ran to Sokoto State and worked as an auto mechanic. When I exhausted all the money I had, I returned home to Kwara State to form a new gang. I still don’t know how police got to know I was back in town. They trailed and arrested me.”