Police allegedly handed a woman to a mob that killed her in Kaduna

The Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has directed the FCID to investigate allegations that police officers in Maraban Jos, Kaduna State, unlawfully handed over a woman named Ummulkhair Muhammad to a mob that lynched her. This is according to a petition filed by human rights lawyer Hamza Dantani, who is demanding a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.

Mrs Muhammad was an Islamic teacher. She was accused of attempting to kidnap children, an allegation Amnesty International has described as part of a growing pattern of violence that is becoming the norm nationwide. Before she was killed, she was taken to a police division where a mob demanded she be handed over to them. Her husband, Aliyu Muhammad, has alleged that the DPO personally handed his wife to the mob, who then attacked her, lynched her, and set her body ablaze.

If these allegations are true, this is a clear failure of law enforcement. The police are constitutionally bound to protect lives, not to deliver citizens to mobs. The IGP has acknowledged the petition and referred the matter for investigation. But we have seen these directives before. The question is whether this investigation will be transparent and whether any officer found culpable will actually face prosecution. How many more people must die before the police remember their duty to protect, not to collude with killers?