Lance Corporal John Gabriel of 241 Recce Battalion, Nguru, Yobe State, yesterday narrated how he murdered Sheikh Aisami Goni and took his car.
Gabriel spoke when he and his colleague, Adamu Gideon, were paraded at the State Police Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters in Damaturu.
Lance Corporal Gabriel said when he woke up on Friday and went to a checkpoint with his rifle, the only thing on his mind was to “arrange any vehicle that I see and take it from the owner.
“When I saw this Honda coming, I stopped the car and asked the owner where he was coming from and where he was going. He said he was coming from Kano and going to his hometown in Gashua. I asked him if he could give me a lift to Jajimaji. He said no problem. We reached our first checkpoint in Dongon Kukar. When he saw soldiers collecting money from drivers, he asked me why. I told him that I didn’t know because it’s not every soldier that collects money from checkpoints. My mission was to collect his car and leave.
“I was not in uniform but the car owner knew I was a soldier because I introduced myself to him before I joined him in his vehicle. As we were approaching Jajimaji about five to six kilometres I told him that I was a hearing a sound under his car. He parked and went to check. I also came down from the vehicle. He checked but he did not see anything.
“It was a ploy to make him come down from the vehicle. As he was checking, I removed my rifle and fixed my magazine. I asked whether he has checked the back tyres. As he was trying to move and check the back tyre; I pointed my rifle at him. He asked, what have I done, what have I done. I said you didn’t do not do anything. He asked again, do you want to kill me. I said I don’t want to kill you.
“I now fired a warning shot, thinking that it would scare him to run away but he did not run away. When he wanted to run into the vehicle, I fired the second shot. When he ran to the side of the driver, I fired on the body of the car and one of the bullets penetrated the vehicle and killed him. I dragged his body off the main road into the bush.
“I have never done this before. On that fateful day, I really don’t know what came over me. I was off duty. I don’t really know what happened.
“I am owing my wife N250, 000 but that is not the reason I went out to do this. I regret killing the man,” he added.
President Muhammadu Buhari called on the military authorities to immediately apply the appropriate punishment on the soldiers who reportedly killed the sheikh.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President said “this barbaric murder of a compassionate man by a soldier he had assisted has no place in our training as soldiers, and it negates the entire ethos of military life, which is anchored on discipline and respect for the sanctity of innocent lives.
“As the Commander-in- Chief, I am personally outraged by this criminal and wicked act by a law enforcement official trained to protect life. Of course, the action of this soldier is an isolated incident involving an individual, but it is capable of staining the collective image of our military.”
“I call on the military authorities to punish the perpetrators of this heinous crime without delay, and flush out other elements with such criminal tendencies,” he said.
He condoled with Yobe State Government, people of the state and family of the deceased.
Governor Mai Mala Buni has offered automatic employment to two sons of the cleric.
He made the offer when the family of the deceased sheikh visited him yesterday.
