Does the Kaduna State governor know one Othman Abdulsalami?   

Is he aware that Othman Abdulsalami, a former Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), was the former Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Garki Police Station, who was implicated in the killing of six Igbo traders in Apo, a satellite town in Abuja, on June, 7, 2005?

It is rumoured in high quarters that Othman Abdulsalami  is presently the Chief Driver to Governor Nasir el-Rufai.

The former DPO participated in the killing of the young Igbo traders, namely, Chinedu Meniru, Augustina Arebu, Ifeanyi Ozor, Anthony Nwokike, Paulinus Ogbonna and Ekene Isaac Mgbe.

It was Othman Abdulsalami who strangled the only female victim, Augustina Arebu, who lived longer than other victims after the shooting.

Othman Abdusalami also supervised the burial of the victims in shallow graves at Utako District of Abuja before the panel of enquiry exhumed them for autopsy.

The former DPO had fled Abuja when the matter heated up after former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an inquiry into the gruesome killing of the young traders at Gimbya Street, Area 11, Abuja, while returning from a night club.

Othman Abdulsalami had told one of his colleagues then, after a manhunt was launched to track him down, that he had gone far. “Forget me, I don go far, far. They no go fit catch me again”, he had said in pidgin English.

The police officer, who ordered the killing, then Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Ibrahim Danjuma, has since been discharged and acquitted by Justice Ishaq Bello, a Fulani, and reinstated in the Police Force, paid his arrears of salary since 2005 when the incident took place and has since been promoted to Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG).

He has also attended a senior management course at the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, thus positioning him for a higher responsibility in spite of his criminal baggage.

Danjuma has maintained a low profile, avoiding public attention, especially contact with the media, moving in disguises and tinted vehicles, ignoring in the process the huge capacity of media memory.

Banking on the short memory lifespan of Nigerians, the governor was said to have deliberately employed Othman Abdulsalami, having worked closely with the former DPO in Abuja.

El-Rufai was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), when the DPO was implicated in the killings.

Curiously, the wanted DPO is said to still be on the payroll of the Nigerian Police.

“He was never fired by the police. He was transferred to the CID Department of Police to hide his identity and to avoid wearing police uniform. He is now the Chief Driver to Governor El-Rufai. In that position, with dark spectacles most of the time, he can never be found; so they thought.

“But, he has even forgotten that he committed any such offence. He was in hiding in the first few years after he stayed in Niger Republic for some time. As it is now, he is even scheming to get a higher position in the security team of the governor,” a dependable source said.

The Apo Six case centred on the extra-judicial killing of five young male auto-spare parts dealers in Apo, a satellite town in Abuja, and a young woman, by police officers on the night of June 7, 2005.

The police had claimed that the victims, aged between 21 and 25 years, were members of an armed robbery gang that had opened fire on the officers when accosted at the checkpoint.

But, a judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo found the police account to be false and recommended the trial of the six officers for extra-judicial killings.

The indicted officers are: Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdulsalami, Nicholas Zakaria, Ezekiel Acheneje, Baba Emmanuel, and Sadiq Salami.

Unlike any other case of suspected extra-judicial killing in Nigeria, some of the police broke ranks and turned on the senior officer involved.

The other five officers accused of the murders and eight more police witnesses testified that Danjuma Ibrahim, the most senior officer, ordered the killings.

Nothing but the truth is expected from Governor El-rufai on the present relationship between him and Othman Abdulsalami.