Nine years ago, today, my immediate younger brother, Sanusi Abdulkadir, was felled by armed robbers in his house at Asaba, Delta State.
Sanusi was a seasoned officer of the Nigeria Customs and Excise, serving in Asaba when he met his untimely death in the hands of ruthless armed robbers.
According to accounts by some of his colleagues, he lived in a rented three bedroom flat which he shared with two other colleagues, each occupying one room, in Asaba, as none of them brought along his family.
On that fateful day, he had just finished praying the Magrib prayer and was sitting on the carpet in his room waiting for his colleagues to convey them to their place of duty as they were all on night shift - he always conveyed them in his car as he was the only one among them who had a car.
Just then, the robbers entered the house. They tried the first door they met, which was locked. The officer in the room saw them through his window, three of them, holding guns. They went to the next door which was also locked. The third door was my brother's room, which was open...and they entered...he was sitting on the carpet where he had just prayed. They threatened him raising their guns and asked for money. Beeing a trained officer, he knelt down and raised his hands above his head in the form of surrender and told them where the money was. His colleagues heard him telling the robbers to take everything.
They shot him three times; one in the neck, another in the chest and the third in the hip.
They ransacked the room, took the money away and went out of the house.
His colleagues found him in that position: kneeling down, his hands raised and slumped against the wall.
I was awoken by one of my cousins at midnight, who came knocking on my door when he couldn't get me on the phone as it was switched off. I was at home in Bakori that weekend...one of the saddest weekends in my life...
Somehow, I came out and went to my father's house. My father was already out. The moment he saw me he rushed towards me and said in a broken voice, "They've killed Sanusi, armed robbers have killed Sanusi!" and he went fast along the road behind our house crying...it was one of the few times I had seen my father lose control. Then he pulled himself together, came back and sat with us. It was so painful...
The last time I saw him was in January, 2007. He was at home then when I returned from Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and he took my car from Bakori, drove to Kano and received us at the airport. Less than two months later, March 3, 2007 and he was gone...
He is survived by one wife and four children...may Allah forgive him and admit him in Jannatul fir daus.