The wife of one of the policemen who was reportedly killed by the Ijaw pipeline vandals on Ishawo Road, Ikorodu, Lagos insists he is not dead.
Mrs. Fatima Yakubu, insists that her husband, Inspector Yerima Yakubu, is alive and would return soon. The vandals were said to have opened fire on the cops on August 3, killing four of them.
Fatimah and Inspector Yakubu (49), who hails from Ebiewakpi in Auchi area of Edo State, are blessed with five children. Fatimah, who was seated in the living room, tried not to break down in tears as she kept saying that her husband was alive.
She said:
“I know that my husband is still alive because he has not appeared to me. Let us go and beg the militants to release him to me and my children. I only shed tears of joy because I know that he is alive and would return to me.”
According to her, the police authorities were yet to inform her about her husband’s death, adding that she only learnt of the incident on the pages of newspapers.
“The last time I saw my husband was Sunday, August 30, 2015, before he left for work at about 5 pm. The next day, we were expecting him to return around 10 am as usual, but he never came back.
“I called his numbers but none of them was going through. I then called his friend who assured me that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, was in town and that they were in Obalende providing security for him.
“I know what his job entails, so I was not bothered, although I found it strange that he never called us to explain why he did not come back. I assumed that his phones could be bad.”
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The picture of her husband’s whereabouts became clearer when a neighbour came to their house with a copy of a newspaper report on her husband’s death, consoling her over what had happened to her husband.
She said:
“It was the next day that I received calls from people in the village, asking how I was doing. Relatives who had never called the family for years called to ask how I and the kids were doing. It was then that I knew that something was wrong.
“Later in the day, our neighbours, family and some of his colleagues started trooping into the house with the newspaper report that three policemen were killed in Ikorodu and my husband was one of them.
“I refused to believe it and I thank God that the next day, the DPO called and said that I should not worry, that my husband is still alive. He assured me that they were looking for him.
“I know he will be found. All I am asking is that they (vandals) should please return him to me. If it is possible, I am ready to go to the creeks and beg that my husband’s life be spared.
“My husband is the greatest man to me and our five kids. I refuse to believe that he was killed. I know that he is alive and would return to me one day.
“Please, stop crying over a man who is still alive.”
Culled from The Nation