ADELOWO OLADIPO reports that the family of the prison official killed during last weekend’s attack on Minna prison is sad that those concerned had not shown enough empathy with the family even as they grieve the loss of their son.
WHEN Dalhatu Shekarau, a Prisons officer, who joined the service 9 years ago, left for duty penultimate Sunday evening, little did he know that it would be his last day at work. Dalhatu, a Muslim, broke his fast with his family comprising of his wife and three children at his house, not far from the prison yard, before he headed to his duty post.
At 8.00 pm armed hoodlums attacked the prison with the aim of releasing some of their friends who were inmates there. In the process, Dalhatu was gunned down with another man, an okada rider, who had come to drop a prison official at work. During the operation, several prisoners escaped.
Days later, there had been no representation from the prison service, nor the ministry of internal affairs for a condolence visit. When the Minster of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Abdulrahaman Dambazzau; Comptroller General of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Jaf’afaru Ahmed; Niger State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello and his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, came to assess the damage done to the prison yard, none of them visited Dalhatu’s family.
Expectedly, the deceased’s mother is not happy. The 86 year-old widow, Hajiya Fatimah Imam Shekarau, told Sunday Tribune that failure of these public officials to visit the family smirks of gross insensitivity.
“We expected the minister and his entourage to visit the family of Malam Dalhatu Imam Shekarau. He was one of the sons of the late Imam of Wushishi, Alhaji Imam Shekarau, who died about 21 years ago. We expected them to also visit the family to ascertain the level of pains and shock we were passing through, for me as his mother and the entire family members. But to our dismay, we have not received a visit, or a condolence message from the authorities as well as from the Niger State Government.
“My late husband was a polygamistm He was survived by 40 children and Dalhatu was my fourth child. He joined the Nigeria Prisons Service with the intention of serving humanity and the nation as a citizen of Nigeria. Prior to his death, he was running a part-time programme at the Niger State Polytechnic, Zungeru,” the bereaved mother said.
Hajiya Fatimah, however, urged the Federal Government to show more concern for the welfares of its citizens, particularly her military and para-military personnel, adding that lack of concern for these people was the failure of those concerned to pay a condolence visits to deceased’s families.
“My son was very religious, humble, sincere and transparent up till his unfortunate killing last Sunday. He was said to be holding his Quran during the attacks by his assailants, saying his Kalimatus Sahada during the attack by the hoodlums, while his blood was also said to have been spilled on the Quran when he died,” Hajiya Fatimah said.
Dalhatu’s elder brother, Saniusi Imam Shekarau, also spoke with Sunday Tribune. He said he and other members of the family received the news of his younger brother’s death with shock, and that he and his siblings later came back to their family house in Minna from Wushishi to console their mother.
On the events that led to his brother’s death, he said that not quite long after the deceased left home for office, his young widow told some people that she heard sporadic gunshots coming from the direction of the Medium Security Prison, off David Mark Road, Minna, and called one of her late husband’s colleagues to ask if her husband was safe.
“My late younger brother’s colleague assured her that the gunshots were not coming from within the prison area just to allay her fears,” he said.
He berated those concerned for not paying a condolence visit to the family noting that his late brother’s colleagues had paid them a visit during the third day prayers for the deceased, but not on behalf of the Prison Service or the government of Niger state.
“We are expecting the Federal Government to look into the possibilities of compensating the family in order to take care of my younger brother’s young widow and her three little children” he stated, insisting that it is the standard practice.