The Adamawa State Police Command has opened investigations in a case of bigotry in which a senior police officer allegedly threatened the life of a southerner who bought a property next to him.
It was widely reported that a certain deputy commissioner of police, a northerner, who has a house in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, rejected the buyer of a house beside his own because the new neighbour is from the southern part of the country.
The state police command in a statement said the Commissioner of Police, CP Mohammed Ahmed Barde, had ordered investigations into the allegation.
“The CP has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Investigation Department to ascertain the veracity of the allegations for further necessary action,” the police said in the statement signed by Police Public Relations Officer, Suleiman Nguroje.
The police did not disclose the name of the officer in view, but when the story first broke on the social media, one Deputy Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Babazango, who owns a house at a commercial district in the heart of Yola, Jimeta, reportedly threatened violent attacks against the new buyer of a house beside his own house, Vincent Umeh.
The police officer, who hailed from Adamawa State, had allegedly said he did not want a southerner as his next-door neighbour.
DCP Ibrahim Babazango, currently attached to Lagos State Police Command, was reportedly infuriated to learn that someone from the South East had become his neighbour.
Vincent Umeh, who is Director of a private business empire named Vikings Limited, bought the house in question, located at 33, Mohammed Mustapha Way, part of Yola’s Central Business District, previously belonging to one Ismail Mamman.
Babazango was said to have warned Umeh to reverse the purchase deal or face bitter consequences, including risk to his personal safety.
“We’re a homogeneous community, I don’t want you; you can’t be my next-door neighbour, I swear. What sort of insult is this? Can any northerner move now to the South-East, say Onitsha and just bump into any neighbourhood to buy a property; just like that?” the DCP reportedly queried in an audio recording.
Narrating his ordeal, Vincent Umeh had told a news medium, “I acquired the property late last year from one Ismail Mamman. I was surprised to receive a call from a man who introduced himself as DCP Ibrahim Babazango, a neighbour of Ismail Mamman who sold the property to me. He threatened that I should abandon the property because he could not guarantee my safety as his neighbour. Given his threat, I reported the matter to the police.”
It was further gathered that Babazango was angry that his former neighbour sold the property to Umeh without offering him (Babazango) the first right to buy.
On his part, the former owner of the house in view, Ismail Mamman, said, “The property is mine and I sold it to Mr. Vincent Umeh. I had approached my former neighbour, DCP Ibrahim Babazango, that I wanted to sell my property. He said he would contact his brother but I didn’t get his feedback; so I sold it to a ready buyer. I have no problems with the buyer at all.”
