How Soldiers Killed My Son For Monitoring His Vote

A 78-year-old man in Bauchi State has narrated how a soldier shot and killed his 28-year-old son to monitor the collation of results after the presidential election in Bauchi State on Sunday.

Punch reports that, father of the deceased, Alhaji Yahaya Wunti, a bicycle repairer, said his son, Mohammed Bello, who is single, left the house at Wunti that morning for the Independent National Electoral Commission Headquarters in the state where results were being collated.Wunti, who spoke to journalists in his house on Thursday, said,

“Mohammed always asked for my permission before leaving the house. He came to me that fateful day at around 11am and informed me that he wanted to go to INEC and I asked him whether he was carrying any incriminating thing on him and he said, ‘no’.
“It was just about 10 minutes after he left that they brought his dead body that he was shot by a soldier.”

The bereaved father, who has beeen receiving sympathisers at his house, said he had yet to understand why the soldier should shoot his son in the head.

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“He was a good boy, who did not like making trouble. He was a mason and was very hardworking but he was very passionate about Buhari. I know my son wouldn’t break the law because of his love for Buhari, so I wonder why the soldier chose to waste a promising young man like Mohammed,” he said.

The Bauchi South Senator-elect, Mallam Ali Wakili of the All Progressives Congress, who was among the sympatisers, expressed sadness over the loss.

Wakili, who defeated the incumbent Governor, Isa Yuguda, during the Senatorial election, said he reported the incidence to the Army and the trigger-happy soldier had been arrested.He said the army had assured him that the matter would be looked into to the letter and ensured that justice was done over the brutal murder of the young man.

There are different unconfirmed reports of what led to the shooting of Mohammed by the soldier.

A version of the incident had it that Mohammed threw a stone at the soldiers, who had a hard time trying to control the multitude of Buharisupporters who thronged the INEC Headquaters at Ahmadu Bello Way in the state capital on Sunday, after the general election.

It was learnt that the soldier, reacting to the alleged stoning, shot Mohammed in the head.Another account said Mohammed was in the crowd, not being of any threat, when the bullet hit him.

A friend, who accompanied Mohammed, while speaking in confidence, said the soldier actually aimed to kill Mohammed.

He claimed that he was standing with Mohammed at a place far removed from the area barricaded by the security operatives.