UNIMAID student Saleem attacks 21-year-old Hauwa for rejecting his love proposal.

By: Zagazola Makama

One of the most chilling characteristics of a vile human is the tendency to violate the sanctity of the lives of fellow humans, often for a very trivial reason. They do this with gusto and the irritating arrogance and belief that there will be no recompense for their action. 

This villainous trait is even more evident when such a vile character is ditched by a love interest. In that circumstance, he or she comes out smoking, literally and thoughtlessly so.

He or she would, in the most flagrant breach of the law protecting and guarding the sanctity of the life of a fellow human, inflict severe physical, emotional, or psychological pain on the victim, often with the threat to kill him or her, and, sometimes, actually succeed in carrying out such a devious plan.

While perpetrating violence against his fellow human, the vile character, leaning on the might of influence or affluence of his privileged position (or that of his parents) in society or any such reason that implies that he is above the law, brags that no man whomsoever can punish him or exert any form of recompense for his dastardly act.

This is the case of Saleem Ibrahim, a student of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Maiduguri, who was jilted by his love interest, Hauwa Abatcha Ngala, a student of the College of Nursing Sciences in Maiduguri.

Love by Force

It was alleged that Saleem had, for some time, forced Hauwa to love him. Not quite convinced by his advances, Hauwa was said to have searched her mind for any speck of love she could have for him but couldn’t find any. She reportedly convinced herself, and all along she tried to convince him that she nursed no feelings or emotions for him in the name of love.

Consequently, she reportedly did her best to break free from all his pranks and mischief against her in his effort at creating a speck of love for him in her heart and therefore parted ways with him respectfully.

The more she tried to free herself from his increasingly enmeshing pranks in the name of efforts at persuading her to love him, the more dangerous and threatening his dispositions got towards her.

Hauwa maintained that she has no love for Saleem, and there was no way she could eke out even the minutest degree of it for him in her innocent and exceptionally sincere heart.

Her emotional feelings against him reportedly sharply contrasted and fiercely clashed with his alleged persistent threat of inflicting severe pains on her, even killing her, if she failed to love him.

The Anti-climax
 
He reportedly told her point-blank that she either loved him or suffered the most gruesome consequences. “I can even kill you, and nothing will happen,”  he reportedly warned her.

This situation reportedly plunged Hauwa into severe emotional anguish. She languished under the increasing weight of this anguish up to Monday, February 26, 2024.

On that fateful Monday, around 8:30 p.m., Saleem Ibrahim allegedly violently physically assaulted Hauwa Abatcha Ngala, hitting her hard twice with a club until she fainted, for her refusal to love him. The club had cracked her head to the point of profuse bleeding. 

Instead of making any possible effort to save her life, out of the love he feigned having for her, he reportedly eloped, leaving her to the mercy of her relatives, who saved her life, however God knows. 

Having seen her alive, the relatives reported the incident to the police on the same day. The police took her to the hospital, and she was given emergency help. 

Consequently, that night, the JTF civilian volunteers arrested Saleem Ibrahim and handed him over to the police at the Gomari Division Office. 

However, on Friday, March 1, 2024, which was three days after the incident and his arrest, the police allegedly released Saleem on the intervention of some politicians without taking any action expressive of the law taking its due course on him.

Immediately after Saleem was released by the police, he went on his Facebook messenger to send Hauwa a private message moking her, saying, “I’m not the type that makes empty threats; anything I decide to do, I will do it, and nothing will happen. I swear with Allah, it is only the poor you can mess with and go scot-free, not a person from an influential background like Saleem. It is only the poor who don’t possess worldly things that you can succeed in winning a case with. If you mess up and succeed with others, I swear with Almighty God you will never succeed because we have the money, the security agencies, politicians, and government officials on our side. But you can only boast about telling your brother. I urge you to continue the case and let’s see who has the monopoly of influence, said Saleem. 

The relatives, frustrated by the action of the police, reportedly again lodged another complaint at the Borno State Police Command Headquarters in Maiduguri on Saturday, March 2, 2024, especially as he had allegedly threatened to kill her and nothing would happen because he is the son of influential people, which infuriated them. 

Saleem was consequently re-arrested and kept in police custody for a week, but allegedly released again as the family was told by the police that the Borno State Secretary to the Government, Hon. Bukar Tijjani, had ordered his release and subsequent dismissal of the case.
without any action taken against him for inflicting serious physical and emotional pain on the victim. 

All of a sudden, Hauwa’s relatives reportedly came across Saleem roaming the streets of Maiduguri as free as every other law-abiding citizen, instead of freezing in police custody preparatory to prosecution before a court of law. 

Unrelenting, deeply aggrieved Hauwa”s family reportedly filed a fresh complaint at the Borno State Police Commissioners Office (CP, Yusuf Lawan) on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, demanding justice in the case. 

Consequently, the police again reportedly arrested Saleem Ibrahim. This time, the police invited the victim and took her report. From there, the police compiled a report on the case and forwarded it to the Borno State Ministry of Justice.

However, to this moment, no one has contacted the victim or her family, even after Saleem has allegedly confessed to committing the crime and his threat to kill her.

Is Saleem a superhuman parentage,extended family or cronies, and, therefore, above the law of the land; and Hauwa, a subhuman that a Saleem could clobber her to a fainting state for no just reason and walk the streets of Maiduguri scot-free, even after confessing to committing the crime?

We are watching, says the National Human Rights Commission.

Jummai Mshelia, the Borno Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), condemned the senseless attack on the victim and demanded that the suspect be charged in court to serve as a deterrent to other perpetrators. 

She said, “W at human rights, immediately immediately the incident happened, the commission filed a formal complaint with the Commissioner of Police, who ordered the immediate arrest of the suspect. We commend the police for the quick response.

“We are told that the case has been written to the Ministry of Justice Department of Public Prosecution for their advice. While we await the response of the department, we want to assure the general public that the case will be followed up until justice is served, she said.

Mshelia lamented the unwillingness of parents and relatives of victims of abuse to increase crime in society while the victims continued to live with the stigma and trauma forever.

She advises the public to report such incidents to the National Human Rights Commission or any other security agencies to stamp out crimes in society.

UNIMAID student Saleem attacks 21-year-old Hauwa for rejecting his love proposal.