Man in police custody for allegedly abusing child with hot iron

Borno State Police Command has arrested the Director of Planning and Statistics in the state’s Ministry of Animal and Forestry, Shettima Gulumbali, for allegedly inserting an electric hot iron into his 10-year old son’s anus at their residence in Maiduguri.

Gulumbali, before his arrest, alleged that his son had been engaging in homosexuality with some politicians in Maiduguri metropolis. His neighbour, Aminu Isa, said: “Gulumbali has been abusing his children with threats and physical torture. Gulumbali was fond of flogging and tying his children for several hours without food and water. He also threatened once to disown his son and divorce the child’s mother.”

Gulumbali, however, dismissed the allegations leveled against him by some of his neighbours. The Guardian learnt that the victim was chained before his father allegedly inserted the electric hot iron into his anus. He was also accused of denying his children Western education.

It was also gathered that the civil servant also recently chained one of his daughters called Mama for insulting her stepmother at the Housing Estate. A top government official, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed Gulumbali’s arrest. Efforts to confirm the incident from the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Victor Isuku, proved abortive.

However, some residents at the estate insisted that there were an increasing level of homosexual activities during and after the 2015 general elections in Borno.

In a related development, the state’s former Commissioner for Information, and current Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of National Trail Newspaper, based in Abuja, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, has been arrested by the police for alleged attempted murder. Bwala was arrested while on his way to the office in Abuja by a team of policemen and brought to the Borno State Police Command, where he is being detained at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Maiduguri.

Confirming the incident at the weekend in Maiduguri, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Damian Chukwu, while speaking on Bwala’s arrest to journalists, said: “Yes, it is true that the former Commissioner of Information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala is in my custody. He was arrested in connection with a petition written against him by the Deputy Governor of Borno, Alhaji Usman Durkwa.”

According to Chukwu, Bwala’s arrest was pursuant to a Court Order issued by a Maiduguri High Court, which said: “Bwala, along with several others still at large, are to be arrested, because they formed part of the accused persons allegedly involved in the attack on Usman Durkwa, the former Borno Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation in Marama town in 2015 during the eve of the presidential election.”

He said the suspect would likely be tried by the same court that sentenced five others earlier accused of the same alleged offense.