Bello Garba Bello, the first son of the late senior official of the state security service killed on Monday in Kano, has allegedly confessed that he was the one who actually stabbed his father, Garba Bello, his mother, Habiba and his three siblings to death in a murder case that has shocked residents of the city.
Twenty-two-year-old Mr Bello (Baba) made this confession yesterday at the headquarters of the Kano State Police Command, Bompai Kano..
The state Police Commissioner, Mohammed J. Gana, showed journalists a handwritten confessional statement allegedly written by the suspect, in which he confessed to killing his family and said that after he killed them, he tried to commit suicide but couldn’t after realising the enormity of what he did.
Mr Bello, who is a 200 level Physics student of the Kano State University of Technology, Wudil (KSUT), had also all egedly confessed, in a hand written statement submitted to the state command of the State Security Service (SSS), that he single-handedly carried out the killings. He also claimed that his anger was that his father was going to die because of his terminal illness and that he could not bear the responsibilities of catering for his mother and siblings that would follow subsequently.
He said in the statement that he stabbed his parents and three of his siblings to death at about 2am on Monday this week. “My father cannot provide for my basic needs, so I killed them all with knives,” the statement to the police reads. “It was painful to me and the entire family. It was an unbearable, irreparable loss. My father has been bedridden and I know he is not going to survive. I did the job alone.
“The intention was to wipe out the entire family and after that, I called my neighbours, Isiaku and Buhari immediately after the incident.”
Speculations not at rest
Security officials say his confession puts to rest speculations about the motive behind the killing of 54-year-old Bello and four members of his family.
The incident also saw 40-year-old Habiba strangulated and three of their children, 16-year-old Hafsat; 14-year-old Khalifa and five-year-old Murjatu murdered in cold blood.
One Umar Danjani, who claimed to be a relation of the deceased SSS official, has, however, disagreed with the police and the said confessional statement of Mr Bello.
Mr Danjani said that Farouk, the other surviving son of the late Bello, told the family that he saw another man who was wearing a white singlet, called Aminu, kill his family members. He also said some neighbours heard the sound of a whistle and sound of many persons.
“This means that the younger Bello did not carry out the killings alone,” he said.
Story from Daily Trust
The eldest son of the slain assistant director of the State Security Service (SSS) yesterday confessed to the murder of his father, mother three siblings without the help of any accomplice.
Daily Trust gathered that 23-year-old Bello Garba Bello, popularly known as Baba, was whisked away by the operatives of the SSS shortly after the incident on Monday morning. And since the incident, there have been speculations that he was involved in the murder given his surprise escape.
Appearing in chains and shackles, visibly ruffled Baba told newsmen at the police headquarters yesterday that he attempted to wipe all the family members and then commit suicide.
“I killed my parents and my siblings alone without the help of anybody. It was a sad event. It was a great loss to our relations,” he said as he shook his head, adding that he killed them while they were at the father’s sick bed. According to Baba, he used two knives in the kitchen and stabbed the family members and in the process his brother Farouk escaped and hid in the bathroom. Although he was unable to give a coherent detail as to the sequence of the murder, he revealed that his ailing father died and then he killed the remaining family members. “I stabbed him after he died because I realised that life would be unbearable for the family members after our father’s death,” he said.
He noted that he refused to commit suicide because his 11-year-old brother was also alive. A security source however said the motive behind the young man’s act was because he wanted to inherit the house and a few other assets of the father.
When his younger brother, Faruq, who also escaped, hid in the bathroom, he attempted in vain to force open the door and kill him too. On realising that he could not kill his brother, Baba warned him not to confess to anybody that he (Baba) killed his parents and siblings.
Another security official who spoke with our correspondent under condition of anonymity said Baba was under the effect of drugs when they arrested him on Monday morning. Many neighbours also corroborated the security official’s remark, saying Baba was a drug addict.
“Investigations showed that the suspect is a drug addict, and as soon as I saw him in the morning I knew that the boy was part of the crime,” a security official told our reporter. Addressing the press yesterday, the Kano Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Gana, said the late SSS officer was on his sickbed and the family members were gathered around him praying for his recovery when Baba came into the compound and said since his father’s ailment had appeared terminal, he should be killed immediately.
The commissioner noted that after saying that the father should be killed for the family to rest, he went and picked a knife and began stabbing them. But the family spokesman, Umar Danjani Hadejia, said they were unhappy with the conduct of the investigation, saying Baba did not commit the murder alone without the hand of other accomplices. He said the family was surprised with the police and the SSS’s conclusion that Baba alone committed the murders.
“We are not ruling out Baba’s involvement in the murders but we believe there are some accomplices because when his mother put a distress call to her sister she told her ‘they are going to kill us’ not ‘he is going to kill us’, and when she asked her to disclose their identity, she said ‘Baba and others’,” said Alhaji Danjani.
The family also said that 11-year-old Faruq had confessed to them that he recognised one Aminu, who was wearing short knickers, among the killers. While further expressing the family’s dismay with the outcome of the investigation, he called on the SSS and the police to thoroughly investigate the matter and bring the accomplices to book. Bello Garba Bello, popularly known as Baba, dropped out from the Physics Department at the Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil.
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