Suspect who murdered 4-year-old for ritual dies controversially in police custody
The anguish of the parents of a four-year-old victim of ritual
killing has been compounded by the death in police custody of one of his
suspected murderers.
The police claimed that the suspect, Fidelis Bossman, a Togolese, was taken ill and died during interrogation.
But the father of the victim, Johnson Habila Magaji, said he suspected the claim was a sinister attempt to pervert the course of justice.
The minor, Psalm Johnson, was reported missing on October 15 from his parents’ Kuruduma 2, Ugwan Hausawa residence in a rural suburb of the Asokoro Extension in Abuja.
A petty trader running a kiosk in the neighbourhood, however, provided a crucial clue when he recalled seeing little Psalm in the company of Boniface Sani, a young man who lived with his parents in the same compound as the Johnsons.
Boniface acknowledged that little Psalm had been with him.
“He claimed however that when he wanted to visit his friend in another part of the village, and because it was about to rain at the time, he instructed the boy to go inside our compound”, Mr. Johnson.
But the trader, Mahmud Magaji, insisted he had seen Boniface walking away from the compound with the little boy. Under interrogation the following day at the A.Y.A Police Station, Boniface later confessed he had sold off little Psalm to Mr. Bossman for N100,000.
Eight days after little Psalm had gone missing, the Police were able
to apprehend Mr. Bossman, who confirmed the transaction. He however
revealed that both of them had immediately strangled the little boy to
death, in a money-making ritual.
The two suspects later led detectives to a riverside behind Asokoro village where the decomposed body of the boy was recovered.
But two days later on October 25, the case took a strange twist. According to Mr. Johnson, when he went to the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, to which the case had been transferred, an officer informed him that Mr. Bossman had died.
“At first, an officer told me that the Togolese had died under interrogation”, Mr. Johnson said Shortly after, another policeman said he had fallen sick and died in a hospital”.
He said he was later shown a picture said to be of the body of the suspect. “But I could not be sure whether the person in the picture was actually dead or posing dead to the camera,” Mr. Johnson said.
When visited the A.Y.A police Station where the case was first reported, the Divisional Police Officer, Aisha Yusuf, said she knew nothing about the Togolese. She said her officers only arrested Boniface before “I had to hand over the case to the CID, because we don’t handle cases like murder and abduction.
The police claimed that the suspect, Fidelis Bossman, a Togolese, was taken ill and died during interrogation.
But the father of the victim, Johnson Habila Magaji, said he suspected the claim was a sinister attempt to pervert the course of justice.
The minor, Psalm Johnson, was reported missing on October 15 from his parents’ Kuruduma 2, Ugwan Hausawa residence in a rural suburb of the Asokoro Extension in Abuja.
A petty trader running a kiosk in the neighbourhood, however, provided a crucial clue when he recalled seeing little Psalm in the company of Boniface Sani, a young man who lived with his parents in the same compound as the Johnsons.
Boniface acknowledged that little Psalm had been with him.
“He claimed however that when he wanted to visit his friend in another part of the village, and because it was about to rain at the time, he instructed the boy to go inside our compound”, Mr. Johnson.
But the trader, Mahmud Magaji, insisted he had seen Boniface walking away from the compound with the little boy. Under interrogation the following day at the A.Y.A Police Station, Boniface later confessed he had sold off little Psalm to Mr. Bossman for N100,000.
The two suspects later led detectives to a riverside behind Asokoro village where the decomposed body of the boy was recovered.
But two days later on October 25, the case took a strange twist. According to Mr. Johnson, when he went to the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, to which the case had been transferred, an officer informed him that Mr. Bossman had died.
“At first, an officer told me that the Togolese had died under interrogation”, Mr. Johnson said Shortly after, another policeman said he had fallen sick and died in a hospital”.
He said he was later shown a picture said to be of the body of the suspect. “But I could not be sure whether the person in the picture was actually dead or posing dead to the camera,” Mr. Johnson said.
When visited the A.Y.A police Station where the case was first reported, the Divisional Police Officer, Aisha Yusuf, said she knew nothing about the Togolese. She said her officers only arrested Boniface before “I had to hand over the case to the CID, because we don’t handle cases like murder and abduction.
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