A 20-year-old herdsman, Abubakar Mohammed, currently cooling his heels at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, in Oyo State Police Command, has confessed to killing his master because he refused to fulfil his promise to give him a cow after serving him for a period of time, saying that the master sacked him about six weeks to the date he was supposed to fulfil the promise.
Mohammed was arrested by policemen from Saki Division in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State after he clubbed his master, one Aliu Umaru (25) to death while sleeping. The incident occurred at Sani-Sala village via Saki, in Oke Ogun area of the state on September 17, 2014.
One Alhaji Abubakar Dikko of the same village had reported at Saki police station on September 18 at about 12.50a.m. that his younger brother, Umaru was killed by Mohammed and one Sidi at a cattle camp, a few kilometers away from the village.
Alhaji Dikko told the police that Mohammed’s action was based on a minor argument between him and his master the previous day. The police were also informed that the suspect went away with one of the cows of his master. Acting on the information, the policemen were said to have gone in search of Mohammed, and with the help of vigilance group members of the community, he was located and arrested with the cow.
Aliu Umaru reportedly met Mohammed at Ilesa-Baruba, a border community between Oyo and Kwara States on June 9, 2014 and contracted him to rear cows for him. Before Mohammed started working for his master, Crime Reports learnt that Umaru showed him a cow which he said would become his own after five months of working for him.
But the deceased was said to have breached the agreement when, after three months and two weeks, he asked Mohammed to leave, saying that his services were no longer required. Not only that, Umaru reportedly decided that Mohammed’s services each month were worth only N3,000, so he paid him N10,000 for the months he spent rearing his cows in the bush.
Speaking with Crime Reports on how he killed his master, Mohammed said: “When I left on that day, another young herdsman working for Umaru, known as Sidi, asked me to come back at nightfall so that we would join hands together to beat our master to death. I lurked in the dark until it was very late in the night and Sidi and I used sticks to beat Umaru while he was sleeping.
“I ran out to where his cows were kept, identified the one he promised to give me and went away with it. Unknown to me, the news that our master had been killed had circulated, so policemen and vigilance group members came after me. They caught up with me in the bush with the cow.”
Sidi however denied being part of the killing, saying Mohammed did not reveal his plan to him. A police source told Crime Reports that Sidi claimed that he was with his master till about 10p.m. on the fateful day before he left for the part of the bush where he kept the cows he was taking care of. He said he returned to his master early in the morning, only to see him in a pool of his blood, which made him raise the alarm to alert others.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, confirmed the story, saying that the suspect would be charged to court after investigations.
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