Three children went to pluck cashew from a bush opposite Ajyaita Village in Kakau District of Chikun LGA of Kaduna State on Tuesday, but ran into a very unlikely sight-a corpse, which was later identified as that of the abducted military officer.
Ajyaita village is about 10 kilometres from Kaduna city centre, and lies along the Eastern By-pass which links the Abuja-Kaduna express way to the southern part of the state.
The children had set out for the forest opposite the village on Tuesday morning and met the decomposing body by a narrow footpath leading to the forest.
Some elders said that the children then ran back home to reveal the unpleasant information to a farmer who they earlier met on their way to the forest. The man was planting yam seedlings at a farm. After hearing the children’s story, he rushed to the spot to confirm it, and he in turn, ran to inform the village head.
The village head informed the police authorities who deployed some policemen to accompany him to the spot. The police then called the army authorities who came to inspect the corpse. Therein came the painful confirmation-it was the body of Colonel Samaila Inusa, who was kidnapped a few days earlier.
“The military came with photographs and confirmed that he was the one. There was no identity card found on him, but the military identified him as the missing colonel. The place he was found is a bush path that is accessible by a car. The bush is also close to a village called Kefinary,” an elder said.
Residents of Ajyaita refused to take our correspondents to the place, saying the place had been cordoned off by soldiers who asked people to stay away for now.
Daily Trust noticed some heavily armed policemen patrolling the area while villagers were busy with their work without any noticeable tension.
The colonel was buried yesterday at the Ribadu Cantonment, Old Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) site in Kaduna according to Islamic rites. Draped in the national colours of green-white-green, the body arrived the old NDA cemetery around11.45am from the 44 Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna and was interred at noon after prayers at the NDA Juma’at mosque.
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