When Major General Rabe Abubakar (Retd), former army spokesperson, died in captivity on Saturday, June 13, all hell broke loose. Understandably. He was not an ordinary Nigerian. But knowing the country well, all it takes to forget him is another high-profile abduction. And that nearly happened when news broke on Tuesday that terrorists attacked the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, on Monday night killing two soldiers and a policeman.
NIPSS is Nigeria’s premier policy think tank and executive leadership training institution where some of the country’s most consummate public servants, senior military commanders, police and intelligence chiefs, diplomats, and private sector leading lights gather annually to reflect on the future of the country.
For now, nobody knows the motive of the gunmen but had they succeeded in their evil enterprise of killing and maiming or even abduction of any of the high profile participants, the impact would have been consequential. Already, some commentators say the attack is unprecedented in its brazenness considering that the Institute is a high-security zone. But such people forget that on August 24, 2021, terrorists attacked the permanent site of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Afaka, Kaduna State, infiltrated the officers’ quarters, killed two military officers – a Major and a Squadron Leader – and abducted Major Christopher Datong. He was only rescued by security forces 24 days later.
Nobody, it seems, remembers that ugly incident again, which explains why the security breach at NIPSS is being portrayed as the first of its kind in Nigeria. It is not. The problem is our collective amnesia. That is why it is necessary to interrogate the circumstances surrounding General Abubakar’s death before it becomes another distant tale. The Katsina State Government attributed his death in captivity to complications arising from diabetes and hypertension.
“The deceased retired General died a natural death from complications of diabetes and hypertension,” the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasiru Mu’azu, said in a statement. Death is usually considered natural by medical experts if it wasn’t caused by an external factor. In answering the question, “What does it mean to die of natural causes?” Dr. Alexander Fitzthum, a pathologist, assistant professor at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, U.S., said: “A natural death is one that occurs due to an internal factor that causes the body to shut down, such as cancer, heart disease or diabetes.”
So, General Abubakar may well have died a natural death if it is true that he died as a result of alleged complications from pre-existing medication condition. But did he? Assuming without conceding that he was, indeed, diabetic and hypertensive, could he have died if he had access to his drugs? To what extent then can the death of a 61-year-old man even with pre-existing medical condition in the hands of terrorists who denied him access to life-sustaining drugs be deemed natural?
The retired major general and former director of defence information was abducted alongside his wife, Amina, and driver when armed men attacked his vehicle on May 30 while travelling along the Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli Road in Katsina State. He was going for a wedding and definitely didn’t have his drugs assuming the tale bandied by the government is true. But the more important questions are: Why was that piece of information so important to the government? Why did they deem it necessary that the public must know he died of natural causes? Whose agenda was that? Besides, how did they know the cause of death even without an autopsy? Were they informed by the terrorists?
These questions are germane given that General Abubakar’s family has dismissed the state government’s claim. Speaking during an interview with the Deutsche Welle (DW), a German multilingual news network, one of his sons, Isyaka Abubakar, said reports attributing his father’s death to diabetes and hypertension are inaccurate. He was emphatic that his father had no history of either illness. Instead, he said based on the last video released by the kidnappers, some people believed the late general died from a snake bite, a claim reechoed by his sister, Adda Abubakar.
But this is a riddle that would have been easily solved through an autopsy. Granted, in Islam, autopsies are generally considered a violation of the sacredness and dignity of the human body, but even at that, they are permitted in cases of necessity when there are overriding societal benefits or legal requirements, which fall under the Islamic principle of maslaha (public interest). That is why recognised Islamic scholars and legal bodies such as the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), a universal scholarly organisation and a subsidiary organ of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), with eminent Muslim jurists, scholars, and intellectuals – specialists in jurisprudential, cultural, scientific and economic fields of knowledge – allow post-mortem examinations under specific conditions, including legal and criminal investigations, homicides, unexplained sudden deaths, or foul play. This is intended to serve the cause of justice. The circumstances surrounding General Abubakar’s death and the need for an autopsy tick all these boxes. If an autopsy had been carried out, the cause of death would have been factually established and not left to conjecture.
The Katsina State Government should have done that and it would still have met the requisite conditions prescribed by Islam. And if the autopsy had been carried out, the burial would still have been done within the ideal 24-hour period. So, why was he hurriedly buried? The third controversy has do with how his body was recovered. While one account claims, as reported by Premium Times, an online newspaper, that the terrorists directed state government officials to a location near the Karaduwa community, where they handed over the body before it was conveyed to Katsina under military escort, former Kogi West senator Dino Melaye, in a post on X on Sunday, claimed that “heavily armed bandits” handed over the late general’s body in Katsina before returning to a nearby forest in Matazu. He did not disclose the source of his information. Yet, another version of the same story claimed that the terrorists dumped the body near a sawmill in Karaduwa community, and some locals who found it notified security personnel, who came, identified the remains, and picked them up in an ambulance escorted by the army to Katsina.
However, it is instructive that General Abubakar’s family claims ignorance of how his body was found. “When I announced the time for my father’s funeral prayer, many people began asking how the body was recovered. I told them I did not know and that they should direct such questions to the government,” he said in the Deutsche Welle interview. “I myself want to know how the body was recovered without rescuing her.” Of course, he was referring to her mother who was abducted alongside her husband. When the story of the death broke, the initial report was that the terrorists handed not only the General’s body but also the wife to government officials. But that story also turned out to be false. Then, two days after the death and burial of her husband, troops of the Nigerian Army, supported by the Nigerian Air Force, rescued Mrs. Amina Abubakar.
Announcing the rescue on Monday, the Defence Headquarters said the operation followed intensified search-and-rescue efforts by troops of Operation Fansan Yamma. A statement signed by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Samaila Uba, said troops made contact with the kidnappers at Tunga Village during sustained offensive operations against criminal elements in the area. “In the course of the encounter, the bandits shot Mrs. Abubakar before abandoning her and fleeing due to the overwhelming pressure from advancing troops,” the statement said. Not surprisingly, there was no word on the fate of the driver. Is he alive or dead? Isn’t his life also important? And there is no indication that any of the terrorists was arrested or neutralized in the course of rescuing Mrs. Amina.
They simply shot her on the leg and disappeared into the forests. If they wanted, they would have wasted her as they did the husband. So, why didn’t they travel that route this time? An act of benevolence from contrite minds or what? The death and hasty burial of Major General Rabe Abubakar and the “rescue” of his wife, Amina, raise so many questions. Sadly, only few answers have been provided. Why was the family blindsided in this harrowing saga? The way the Katsina State Government handled the matter leaves much to be desired. There seems to be more to it than meets the eye. Hopefully, one day a fully recovered Mrs. Amina will fill in the yawning gaps.
The post General Rabe Abubakar’s death: Many questions, few answers, by Ikechukwu Amaechi appeared first on Vanguard News.
