BY SUZAN EDEH
Bauchi—Mr. Augustine Agbo, the man whose wife, Charity, was allegedly killed by soldiers inside the family house in Bauchi, last month, has accused military authorities of shielding the suspects from justice.

Agbo said the suspects who carried out the act on Wednesday, October 19, , were not presented for an identification parade just as the 33 Artillery Brigade, from where the soldiers was sent had not visited the family to sympathise with them.

The widower, spoke in an interview with Vanguard in Bauchi, yesterday, alleging that the soldier who fired shots into his late wife’s stomach, broke the glass door in the house with the butt of his  gun before killing her .

He said: “During the Yelwa crisis in Angwan Ngas, about 30 soldiers came to the area to maintain law and order, but unfortunately, instead of protecting the lives of the residents, they turned their guns against innocent people. The soldiers indeed, hunted and intimidated  innocent people, of which, my wife happened to be a victim.

’’At 10 a.m on the fateful day, my children, who went to school, ran back to the house, saying that there was crisis in one Baba Tanko Primary School.

’’Within 30 minutes,  some soldiers came to the area in a Hilux van to calm the situation.

When people saw the soldiers, they ran to their houses for safety and as they approached my house, all the people that were outside my house ran into the building for safety.

’’We were about 40 in the house when the soldiers came and banged on the gate with the butts of their guns before forcing their way into the compound.

’’At this point, all of ran into the house but when they got into the compound, one of the three soldiers that came into the house used the butt of his gun and started hitting the door of the house that was bolted from inside.

’’However, as they were hitting the door, the noise became so much that my wife asked, ‘are you going to break this door?

’’The soldier, who seemed annoyed by that statement then retorted, in Hausa language ‘zaku gi da shi,’  meaning you are going to see.

’’Due to the continuous hitting, the central glass of the door then broke and he put the gun through the hole created and shot my wife. The last word I heard from my wife was, ‘they have killed me.’

’’Even as my wife was dying, the soldiers stood there and refused to help her to the hospital despite my pleadings.Instead, they commanded me to go back to my house, and threatened to shoot me if I refused to obey their command.

’’Even when the youths in the area took my dying wife to the soldiers and demanded that she be taken to hospital, the soldiers got more agitated and started shooting into the air, which made everybody ran for dear life. It was as if we were in a war front.

“I then pleaded with a State Security Service, SSS, official to help  convey my wife to the hospital, because as at that time, she had lost a lot of blood. The SSS official then  told his driver to take her to the hospital.

’’When we got to the emergency unit in the hospital, we took my wife out of the vehicle, but she had given up the ghost.”

He, however, said  the military authorities were trying to sweep the matter under the carpet.

When contacted, the  authorities of 33 Artillery Brigade denied knowledge of soldiers being involved in any shooting, but added that investigations were still going on.  Asked whether the soldier who killed Mrs Charity was still in detention, one Major Etete, who spoke for the Brigade, said, there was ‘’no soldier in detention and no soldier killed any person during the crisis.’’