Umar Sanda, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police has been transferred to Lagos following his alleged involvement in manipulating a murder case into a road traffic offence.
According to an insider, the commissioner had been transferred and there is another police boss for Bauchi Command. The name of the new police commissioner was simply given as ‘Alhassan’ as information about him remains sketchy as of press time.
“His transfer is with immediate effect,” the insider told WikkiTimes. “The development was communicated to him this morning and if he has not; he should leave any moment soon.”
However, the command has not announced it officially.
This comes after WikkiTimes reported how the police boss facilitated the release of Mohammed Damina, former Bauchi State Commissioner for Information, who “killed” his friend, Adamu Babanta, after trying to woo the latter’s daughter, Kadija.
The ex-commissioner who holds the traditional title of Galadiman Dass, while stunting with his car smashed Babanta against a pavement — a development that later led to his death. The deceased, at the time, had been trapped in the suspect’s car.
“He had already opened the door and Galadima kept stunting until he smashed him against a pavement near a plank-made political signpost at the front of ATBU,” Kadija told WikkiTimes.
Stunningly, the police boss alongside his officers Ahmad Buba and Livinus Emmanuel filed a road offence case against the commissioner, but the deceased’s family lawyer, Alkassim Muhammad disagreed. He believes the police were trying to lessen the suspect’s crime to cheat justice. He would later petition the Police Service Commission (PSC) for proper handling of the matter.
Sanda further instructed that the ex-commissioner be charged to the Bauchi State Magistrate Court III with Traffic Road Act (RTA). But the case is a culpable homicide punishable with death under section 221 of the penal code, the deceased family’s lawyer argued.
JUSTICE IN PROGRESS
The magistrate court presided over by Safiya Musa Salihu, ruled that the case be transferred to the state Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for discreet investigation.
In addition, the magistrate ordered that the ex-commissioner be remanded at the Bauchi correctional service centre pending the outcomes of the investigation. Also, the investigation would be handled by operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS).
The judgement was made after the court went through the coroner’s postmortem report, a police First Information Report, and a medical report availed before the magistrate.
An autopsy report signed by Dr Dauda Sulaiman, a pathologist at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) and exclusively obtained by WikkiTimes revealed that Babanta died from “Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury secondary to multiple skeletal and soft tissue trauma.”
The case was, however, adjourned to November 23, 2022, according to a writ obtained by WikkiTimes.
When contacted the confirm Sanda’s transfer and imprisonment of the suspect, Ahmed Wakil, spokesman for Bauchi Police Command refused to talk to our reporter, saying he does not know him. Similarly, the police boss, Sanda was not available for comment. A text sent to both had not been responded to as of press time.