A police investigator, Douglas Ishaku, an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), testified before the FCT High Court in Jabi, Abuja, that Somtochukwu Maduagwu, a journalist with Arise News Television, was pushed from a two-storey building by a member of an armed robbery gang. The incident occurred on September 29, 2025, at Maduagwu's residence in the Katampe area of Abuja. Ishaku, the fourth prosecution witness in the trial of 11 suspects linked to the attack, provided new details about the circumstances surrounding Maduagwu's death.
According to Ishaku, one of the robbers shot Barnabas Danlami, a security guard at the residence, to death during the armed robbery operation. The police investigator countered a widely reported narrative that Maduagwu jumped to her death in a burst of anxiety to escape from the robbers. Ishaku did not identify the suspect who pushed Maduagwu but identified Shamsu Hassan as the one who allegedly shot the security guard. The 11 suspects, including Hassan, were arraigned in January for murder and armed robbery.
Ishaku also testified about how the police arrested the 11 defendants, stating that human intelligence and digital analysis were used to track them down. He said Hassan fled to Zaria after the operation and confessed to the crime after being arrested. The suspect disclosed the location of the second defendant, Sani Sirajo, who was found in a hospital on drip. Ishaku noted that Sirajo had a previous record with the police and agreed to cooperate with the authorities to provide information that could aid in the arrest of other gang members.
The police officer testified that Sirajo called the third to sixth defendants on the phone to inform them of a new operation and asked them to meet him at Dei Dei Bridge in Abuja. The police provided Sirajo with a vehicle, which he used to lure the four suspects. The recovered arms also made the suspects believe that other police in the vehicle were part of the gang. Ishaku said one of the suspects, who allegedly called the eighth defendant to join the operation, was found with a knife when the police arrested him alongside the other four.
Confessional statements of some of the arrested suspects implicated the ninth and seventh defendants, with the seventh already in police custody. The 10th and 11th defendants were arrested in Kano for another operation, but investigations revealed they were part of the Katampe apartment incident. Ishaku stated that he followed the necessary protocol for taking the confessional statements of all the defendants, including video recording, cautionary words, and speaking in a language they understood.
Ishaku noted that the first to the sixth defendants, 10th and 11th defendants, participated in the armed robbery incident that took place in Katampe. He added that the seventh and eighth defendants are gang members and that investigations revealed the defendants were all part of a syndicate operating in various places. Sirajo owned the pump-action gun, and Hassan owned the fabricated AK-47 that the police had recovered.
The case has been ongoing, with previous testimonies from witnesses, including Maduagwu's neighbors, Sani Yusuf and Fatou Toborteh. They described hearing female screams on the night of the incident and seeing Maduagwu with a serious head injury. Maduagwu's father, Ifeanyi Maduagwu, previously rejected claims that his daughter fell to her death while escaping armed robbers, insisting she was murdered. Ishaku's testimony provides new evidence in the case, and subsequent court proceedings may reveal the identity of the alleged suspect who committed the crime.
Key points
- The police investigator testified that Somtochukwu Maduagwu was pushed from a two-storey building by a member of an armed robbery gang.
- The 11 suspects, including Shamsu Hassan, were arraigned in January for murder and armed robbery.
- The police used human intelligence and digital analysis to track down the defendants.
