By Abel Leonard/lafia
It was double tragedy in Nasarawa State when 23-year-old Ahmed Abdullahi who stabbed his step grandmother to death allegedly committed suicide while in police custody.
Abdullahi’s parents have been estranged for the last 11 years and as a result of the collapse of the marriage, he was forced to live with his mother who till the time of his death lived in her father’s compound at Ungwan-Yakubu, Agyaragu village in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa.
Sources within the family said it was agreed that his parents should separate for a while to allow them to calm frayed nerves as there had been reports of domestic violence which further made reconciliation difficult.
Living with his mother was also not a very pleasant experience for him as his mother, grandmother and step grandmother were always at each other’s throats. Family members said Abdullahi always complained that his step grandmother was causing his mother and grandmother much grief.
On Friday, October 10, 2019, Abdullahi’s mother went out to check on her friend after she had a heated argument with his step grandmother. Upon her return, she discovered that Abdulahi had killed his step grandmother as she was found sprawling on the floor in a pool of her own blood.
It was learnt that Abdullahi first attacked his step grandmother with a kitchen knife he borrowed from a neighbor leaving her with a cut on her leg even though the cause of their fight was her frequent disagreement with his mother. While she was running out of the house, he slit her throat and pushed her to the ground where he used the same knife to stab her to death.
According to witnesses, Abullahi’s mother immediately fled the house after the children of the deceased tried to avenge their mother’s death and her whereabouts remain unknown.
However, After the murder, Abdullahi went into hiding but later reported himself at the police station in Agyaragu confessing to what he has done.
Upon his arrest, he was transferred to police headquarters in Lafia. But a police source said he committed suicide shortly afterwards by constantly hitting his head on the wall until his head broke and he bled to death. He has since been buried.
The state police public relations officer Ramhan Nansel said members of the community wanted to lynch him but the police intervened and took him into their custody to commence investigation into the motive of the murder.
But the state police commissioner, Bola Longe, denied knowledge that Abdulahi committed suicide in police custody, though he admitted that he was aware that he confessed to killing his step grandmother and was arrested by his men. But he denied that he committed suicide in their custody.
