Police arrest man over alleged killing of business partner

The long arm of the law has caught up with a middle-aged man, Mallam  Musa (surname withheld), who was said to have killed his business partner, Mallam  Dauda (surname withheld), a 38-year-old from Dakumi village, Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State over N2,350,000 in the Republic of  Togo.

The suspect, a nationale of Republic of Niger, who is now cooling his heels in the cell and assisting police operatives at the Criminals Investigation Bureau (CIB)  of the  state police command headquarters, Minna, on the immediate or remote cause of the death of his business partner.

The suspect was allegedly a long time friend of the deceased, whose corpse was found with injuries said to have been caused by object like knife or an axe  in a hotel room in the Republic of Togo, where the two of them had  wanted to buy a  choice car.

The deceased was said to be a car dealer based in Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State until his untimely death.

He was also said to have been married and blessed with four children while his last telephone call to his family in Niger State was last month, at the Seme Border between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin,  while he was on his way  to Cotonou.

Metro gathered that the deceased had called his client in Nigeria to send unspecified amount of money into the suspect’s account while the latter was said to have called  back for confirmation that he had  received the credit  alert.

It was further learnt that despite efforts by the deceased and the suspect, they could not get the type of car demanded by the customer in Nigeria  and had to proceed to the Republic of Togo with a friend of the suspect, who is at large and  checked in the same hotel room in Togo with the name of the deceaced, a Nigerian.

However, after days of silence from the deceased  and his phone calls not going through, it was discovered that his corpse was found  in a mortuary in Republic of Togo and he was suspected to have been stabbed to death the very night he arrived in Togo in his  hotel room by unknown person.

An insider police source at the CIB, Minna, said the suspect was arrested in Lagos last Thursday after his bank account was blocked and he could not access it.

The source, who craved for anonymity, said the suspect was picked up by the police when he went for clarifications from his bankers (names withheld) on what was responsible for his inability to make withdrawals from his bank account.

It was further learnt that upon his arrest and interrogation by the police, the suspect was said to have confirmed receiving the said amount, N2,350,000.

When contacted, the police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Niger State Command, DSP Bala Elkana, confirmed the incident, adding that the police were investigating a case of fraud and cheating levelled against the suspect.

Elkana stated this in a brief interview with Metro in Minna, on Sunday, noting that some money was sent to somebody’s account and the suspect, whose account was credited with the huge amount of money did not remit it to the rightful owner, who died prematurely in a bizarre manner shortly after the payment was made to the suspect.

Elkana stated further that the case was an interpol issue, but until the embassy receives a report of established murder case against a Nigerian, it cannot pick up the case.

He stated further that until somebody could come up with the statement establishing of a murder case before police could commence investigation into the matter.