* Condoles with Jibrin Ahmed’s family

President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the family of retired Commissioner of Police of defunct Gongola State, Alhaji Ibrahim Babankowa, on his death. He was born 1937, in Ringim, present day Jigawa State.

Ex-Commissioner of Police of defunct Gongola State, Alhaji Ibrahim Babankowa

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu

President Buhari stated that Babankowa would be long remembered for the role he played in crushing the Maitatsine uprising of 1980 and his discovery of the body of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa after the January 15, 1966 coup d’etat.

Buhari, who had a long and close association with late Babankowa, believed that even in death, the deceased would remain a model of integrity and steadfastness to all who knew him.

It was actually, Alhaji Ahmad Ibrahim Babankowa who, as an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) serving at Ota in present day Ogun State, in January 1966, that discovered the corpses of Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa and his Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh.

He was, at the time, head of a special unit deployed to the Western Region to restore order and was, on that fateful night, on a road block/patrol operation on the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta, when mutineers passed him and his team on their way to a nearby bush where they dumped the corpses of their victims, including the PM’s.

He enlisted as a cadet inspector of police on February 1, 1960 and retired as a commissioner in January, 1984.

President Buhari similarly extended his personal condolences to the family of the celebrated farmer and bookseller, Jibrin Ahmed, who also died recently.

“The President is saddened by the death of Ahmed with whom he also had a close relationship over many years, and greatly respected for his exemplary humility and belief in the dignity of labour.

“President Buhari will forever treasure his memories of Ahmed as one of the most hardworking and humble Nigerians he has had the privilege of knowing,’’ the statement added.

The president, therefore, prayed that Almighty Allah would grant Babankowa and Ahmed eternal rest, and comfort their grieving families, friends and associates.