For Bashir Ahmad, December 2017 remains a deeply traumatic period. The former aide to ex-Kaduna senator Shehu Sani says he was beaten and pressured to implicate his principal in an alleged assassination plot—an ordeal he claims left him traumatised and partially deaf.
In an interview with The Punch, Ahmad recounted that he was arrested three times for supporting Senator Shehu Sani against former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, with the second detention in February 2018 coming after authorities accused him of delivering N250,000 from Sani to one Isah Garba to kill Lawal Maitura—a charge he repeatedly denied.
He described the February operation as overwhelming: armed personnel raided his family home in Tudun-Wada, guns drawn, in the presence of his cousin, Ibrahim. He was beaten, restrained, and taken to a farm along the Abuja–Kaduna highway linked to the late Senator Aruwa. Garba was brought in and coerced into naming Ahmad as part of the alleged plot, a claim Ahmad rejected, insisting he had no involvement.
Ahmad said both he and Garba were tortured and pressured to admit to crimes they did not commit. Garba reportedly explained that he had been forced to make false statements and had no knowledge of Lawal Maitura, noting that his (Lawal) own coerced confession arose from local disputes with political thugs in Kabala Costain, Kaduna North, while Ahmad lived in Kaduna South.
Before being transferred to the One Division detention facility of the Nigerian Army, Ahmad said a soldier urged him to accept the allegation against Shehu Sani in exchange for release. He refused, saying he could not admit to a crime that never occurred. He recounted being handcuffed and chained, suffering severe beatings that affected his hearing, and being placed in a cell alongside individuals accused of Boko Haram affiliation, an experience that left lasting physical and psychological scars.
When he was asked how he knew they were Boko Haram members, he said, “They told me they were members of Boko Haram. While in the cell, they frequently insulted the late President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration, as well as former Governor Nasir El-Rufai.”Please Share 🙏…
