Nigerian man who sneaked to India to donate kidney died on HWN SPOTLIGHT

The family of a 36-year-old man, Muhammad Abubakar, alias Babani, of Unguwan Kaji in Potiskum, Yobe State, is accusing a businessman over his death after he took him to India to donate one of his kidneys to the tycoon’s ailing son, Paris.

Late Babani, who had two wives and nine children, died after the businessman, whose name was given as Alhaji Husaini Ibrahim - said to own several petrol filling stations in the town -  flew him to India without the knowledge of his family.

A brother of the deceased, Alhaji Alameda Mustapha, explained that he last saw Babani on Tuesday, November 10, when he said he was going to visit a friend in Kaduna and that from then the family did not hear from him until one evening, 10 days later, when he received a phone call that Alhaji Yunusa had arrived their home along with two of his brothers.

When I arrived at the house, I met Alhaji Husaini seated in the living room with four other persons that had accompanied him. He asked me if I heard any news about Babani and I said ‘yes.’ I told him that Babani told me he was travelling to Kaduna over a week ago, he narrated.

He then told me that my brother had actually travelled to India. When I asked him how, he said that he had travelled to help his son, called Paris, who needed a kidney transplant in India and that Babani had donated his,” Mustapha added.
     
At this point, he said he demanded to know why the kidney removal was done without the knowledge of the family and that Ibrahim said it was Babani’s wish that no one knew and so his request was honoured.
But Mustapha insisted that they must have wooed him with money, else they would not have flown him outside the country without his family’s knowledge.

A week later, Babani’s corpse was brought to his family in Potiskum, he added.

Not satisfied with the businessman’s explanation, the family reported the matter to the police and demanded an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.

Mustapha said that they also reported the matter to the police commissioner in Damaturu, but that they were not satisfied with the way he went about it.

It appeared he was not serious about it,” he said, adding that the family members were in distress because he died mysteriously in the hands of people who are known to the authorities, and that they want to see that justice was done, though those responsible for the death of his brother seem bent on subverting the course of justice.

When newsmen spoke to Ibrahim, he said when his son was hospitalised in Kano, the deceased visited them and volunteered to help by giving him his kidney. He said five months later, Babani returned and said he was ready for the kidney removal operation but that when his ailing son requested that the donor’s family be informed the deceased said he did not want people to know because they would assume that he sold his kidney.

That was how the whole affair was hidden from me for a while because they knew I would like to seek for the approval of his family. When I found out, I insisted on this, but Babani said if his family was told, he would withdraw his help,” Husaini stated.

That was how we traveled to India and I was later told he had died even when the kidney had not been removed,” he said, adding that his wife was already preparing to fly to India to donate her kidney to their son and that was the truth.

When journalist spoke to the Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Muhammad Zanna Ibrahim, he said the matter was still under investigation.

Source: DailyTrust, HWN Africa.