1995 Beheading of Akaluka: Group To Drag Sanusi To National Conference

In search of justice, a group, Council For Eastern Justice, CFEJ, has

initiated moves to drag embattled Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,

CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to the National conference over the

beheading of Gideon Akaluka, an Igbo trader in 1995, and other killings of

people of Igbo extraction.
Akaluka, a young Igbo trader, allegedly desecrated the Koran. He was

arrested after his wife allegedly used pages of the Koran as toilet paper

for her baby. After the police locked him up, a group of Muslim

fundamentalists broke into the police station cells, beheaded Akaluka, and

paraded his bodiless head around the streets of Kano.

Sanusi, and eight others were arrested and locked up for the crime, on the

orders of the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha. Investigation by

the authorities revealed that Sanusi was the kingpin of the murderous

gang.
CFEJ said through its spokes person, Chief Sylvanus Emeka Okeke said the

intention is to draw attention to the series of unresolved killings of

Igbos in the North and to seek for justice.
“We are doing this to draw the attention of the unresolved and the

continuous killings of Igbos in the North under the watchful eyes of

Northern Leaders.”
According to him, “Akaluka was beheaded in 1995, several other Igbos have

been killed in the North and no one seem to have been punished for such

dastardly act. This cannot continue to happen if we really want to live as

one in this country.”
“We want to know what Sanusi knows about the killing and if there are

those who knew about it still alive today. We want justice for Akaluka and

others and we want the wanton killings of Igbos to stop,” Okeke Said.

The group said it is sending a petition to the South East Delegates at the

on-going National Conference.
Okeke said, “we are sending a petition to the South East delegates at the

National conference and we will articulate all the unresolved killings of

Igbos in the North.”
He noted that, “Ndi Igbos have suffered in the Northern Part of Nigeria.

Often times they are killed, their businesses destroyed and no one is held

accountable yet we talk of one Nigeria. The National Conference would

decide if indeed Igbos are free and save to live anywhere they choose to

in our current entrapment called Nigeria.
Pointblanknews.com recalled that, Sanusi, an alleged Boko Haram

sympathizer, and proponent of the controversial Islamic Bank, played a

role in the murder of Akaluka. The Abacha regime locked him up for two

years for the murder of Akaluka.
Sources hinted that shortly after returning from Khartoum, Sudan where he

earned a degree in Sharia and Islamic studies, at the International

University of Africa, Sanusi became a recluse and immersed himself in the

Koran and became a teacher of the Hadith as espoused by the Wahabbists.

Wahhabism is an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam. It is a

religious movement among fundamentalist (with an aspiration to return to

the primordial fundamental Islamic sources Qur`an, Hadeeth and Scholarly

consensus (Ijma)) Islamic believers. Wahhabism was a popular revivalist

movement instigated by an eighteenth century theologian, Muhammad ibn Abd

al-Wahhab (1703–1792) from Najd, Saudi Arabia.
Sanusi, who is alleged to detest the President Goodluck Jonathan's

administration, because according to him, it is anti-islam, was part of a

nine-man clique of extremists who had a huge following.

A source said, “when Sanusi returned from Sudan where he associated with

very extreme personalities, he was not a happy man. he was treated like an

outcast in royal circles because his grandfather, was deposed as Emir of

Kano. So his anger grew. “
During that period, the incident of desecration of the Koran by the

Akalukas surfaced. According to our source, during that period the Abacha

government was not comfortable with the activities of the extremists in

Kano, who they view with suspicion.
The regime, it was gathered, silently assassinated a lot of them. Said our

source “ When Akaluka was locked up, Sanusi and eight others mobilized

some extremist mob who stormed the prison and killed Akaluka. The regime

identified the masterminds, so mandated its hit squad to eliminate the

nine, including Sanusi .”
Pointblanknews.com gathered that eight of the masterminds were

assassinated by Abacha, but for the intervention of former First Bank

chairman, and father of Christmas Day bomber, Alhaji Umar Mutallab and

others.
“ It was Muttallab and the rest who were heavy sponsors of Islamic

activities who prevailed on Abacha to spare Sanusi. They are argued that

since he has gone through a lot, treated like a pariah in the royal

circles because his grandfather was deposed, he should be spared. So They

decided to remove him from Kano to Sokoto where he was locked up for two

years.” Said the source
It was further learnt that after his release from prison, Sanusi was

handed over to Mutallab who pushed him into banking because he(Sanusi) had

a degree in Economics from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). From there he

moved to the United Bank for Africa, and the First bank, from where he

rose quietly until late President Umar Yar'Adua recruited him to head CBN

and spearhead the introduction of the Islamic Bank.