Maimumatu Suleiman, 21, stabbed her husband, Aliyu Mohammed Gidado to death on July 5th, 2023 in their residence at Kofar Dumi in Bauchi State, Nigeria.
Since then, I have read different narratives about the tragic incident. Some said she killed him because she was forcefully married to him while others said she murdered him because he intended to take a second wife.
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As a trained journalist and fact-checker, I felt I should investigate the sourceless narratives, save the public from being misled by architects of misinformation and fake news, and feed the public with authentic information.
Using Facebook, I identified his neighbor and demanded that he send me his phone number so we can talk about the incident and he did. He told me that Aliyu and his wife got married in January 2020 and have one child—a boy.
“Their marriage was out of love. Everybody knows them and most people in their area have admired them because of their love for each other which culminated in their marriage.
“And they never had any serious issues until recently when Aliyu realized that Maimuna has been going out without his permission as her husband.
“Aliyu returned home three days ago and expressed sadness about her deviant conduct which later resulted in a serious misunderstanding between them that nearly broke their marriage but his father and older brother intervened. ”
On the day the incident happened, Gidado’s father saw Maimuna’s friend coming out of their house after they spent hours in her room holding her plasma TV but he didn’t talk to them.
“It is a tradition in their house that the last person that comes in after 10 pm makes sure everyone is around before closing the gate, his friend explained.
Wednesday night after 10 pm, his older brother called his name and asked if he was around or not so he would lock the gate but Aliyu didn’t answer. His brother asked thrice but to no avail.
Worriedly, his brother approached his room and observed that he was gasping for breath. He quickly got back to his room and took a touch and entered the room and saw his brother soaked in blood while his wife, the prime suspect was facing him.
That was when he quickly called their father to see what happened and subsequently sought help from their neighbors to rush their brother to the hospital. Unluckily, Gidado died before they got to the hospital.
Out of patience, concern, and resilience; they rushed his wife to the hospital thinking that she, too, was stabbed. The doctors informed them that she is safe, only that she sustained bruises on her stomach.
After she regained consciousness, Gidado’s father asked what happened and she told them that thieves jumped over the fence and killed her husband when she went to the toilet to pour her child’s urine.
She even told them that the thieves ran with her plasma TV unknown to her that the bereaved old man saw her friends going with her plasma TV hours before the unfortunate incident but didn’t argue with her.
Curiously, the victim’s father told her that there is no way thieves would jump over the fence without being seen by a tea seller beside their gate, whose place is always busy with people.
After discovering that she was suspicious, they called police on her.
The cops came and took her to the station, where she confessed that she stabbed him twice in his chest because of a misunderstanding they had in the evening.
It was also reliably confirmed that she has a three-month pregnancy for Gidado.
Therefore, those who were saying that the murderer was forcefully married to him are just lying to the public. Their marriage was out of enormous love.
Similarly, an Abuja-based lady Maryam Sanda mercilessly stabbed her husband to death on November 2017.
Many media outlets largely online alongside social media influencers had disseminated unverified chronicle stories about the tragic incident without confirmation from the parties involved.
Sharing unfiltered and fabricated information is seemingly becoming a normal norm in Nigeria among media outlets and internet users to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts.
I felt it is necessary to call on spreaders of information and netizens to please desist from sharing unverified information and cultivate the habit of digging into stories before publishing them.
Please pray for the repose of Gidado and his mother. She died in early January 2023.
Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Borno and can be reached via email:lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com
