The Kano State Police Command yesterday confirmed the killing of the Lebanese engineer, Sagir Ahmed, by his abductors.
Ahmed, an engineer with Triacta Construction Company, was kidnapped at the construction site in Kano on Tuesday.
The spokesman of the police command, Abdullahi Haruna, confirmed that Ahmed’s body was discovered in a bush at Yansango village in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the state.
He said that the body had been discovered by the villagers before the police were contacted.
He said the expatriate was confirmed dead at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital where his body was later deposited for autopsy.
The area manager of the construction company, Mr. Millard, when contacted for comment on whether the abductors demanded any ransom, simply said: “We don’t know why they had to kill him, ask the police.”
The police could not confirm ransom demand either.
Two other persons, including the expatriate’s driver, were shot during the incident. The police said one of them, Apollos Ahmad, died the same day on arrival at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital; while unconfirmed reports said the other victim, who was rushed to the hospital, died Wednesday.
The Lebanese was one of the site engineers overseeing the ongoing underpass construction of the Kano Zoo Road underpass.
The incident occurred around 7:00am on Tuesday when staff of the company were resuming work after the elections’ break.
An eyewitness said the gunmen arrived in a black Volkswagen Golf car with tinted glasses and started firing before taking away the expatriate.
“I dropped from a tricycle and I was trying to pay the driver when all of a sudden a black Volkswagen Golf car stopped close to us and three men alighted from it. Then, one of the men brought out a rifle and began shooting. I and the driver of the tricycle ran for our lives, after some minutes, they left and we saw the lifeless body of one of the staff of the construction company,” he narrated.
Another, witness Salisu Shehu, said: “I went to get a breakfast, when we heard gunshots and the whole of the construction site was sent into confusion, people were running for their lives.
“Initially we thought it was a clash between political thugs taking into consideration the tension in town, but we later realized that it was a kidnap plot and they have succeeded in taking away their target the expatriate engineer.”
