An evangelist, Danladi Galadima, tells CHIKA OTUCHIKERE how his 23-year-old ward, Priscilla Daniel, was killed in the Shiroro area of Minna, Niger State, on August 30, 2023
What is your relationship with the deceased?
My name is Evangelist Danladi Galadima. I am from Tafa in Niger State and I have been in Tafa for over 30 years. I am the coordinator of Freedom Deliverance International Ministry. In the organisation, we take care of orphans, the underprivileged and some who are into cultism or witchcraft. After deliverance, we rehabilitate them and we take them back to their parents or wards. Sometimes, the parents tell us to take care of their children for them, so we take care of them and enrol them in school.
So, about four years ago, we organised a programme, a crusade in the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State. I have a friend who is a pharmacist there. At the crusade, I met the girl, Priscilla, who was said to have lost her father and mother and she looked dejected, unkempt and helpless. The person she was living with had her children so, I told them that if she had become a liability they could allow me to take her and help her.
They agreed. I brought her to Niger State, enrolled her at Gbamgbabi Primary School and also paid for her to learn sewing. She had some spiritual problems too. I delivered her. She said I should change her surname so she could bear my name, but I told her I would not do that. Eventually, last year, we went for a holiday in Bauchi, and I carried her along so that her people could see her. They were very happy that she had changed, was robust and had grown up. I told her to stay back with her people but she said she would like to return to Niger State with us.
Can you explain what happened to her?
On the fateful Wednesday, August 30, 2023, she came to our place. Sometimes, she slept at home and sometimes she slept in the church because we have accommodation there. After having her breakfast, I told her to go to the place where she was learning how to sew. Just 20 minutes after she left, I got a call and when I picked it up, the caller told me to go to the highway. I went to the place and I couldn’t see anyone I knew. I saw a lot of people and I asked some people what happened. I saw a police officer in charge of traffic control and he told me to follow him to the general hospital in the area.
What happened when you got there?
We saw her there. She was already dead. When I asked what happened, the traffic officer explained to me.
What did he tell you?
He said Pricilia had already crossed the first road near a power station, and that she was just waiting to cross to the other side of the dual-lane road when a vehicle knocked her down and an incoming truck smashed her head while trying to carry out a manoeuvre at the roundabout. That was how she died on the spot. That was how people told me the incident happened because I was not at the scene when it happened.
What happened to the driver who knocked her down?
Later, the police said the driver confessed that he was drunk.
What did the police do afterwards?
They took the two drivers to Tundu Wada Police Station where the officers were investigating the matter. You can’t say the trailer was speeding because it was negotiating the roundabouts.
Did you inform her relatives?
I was communicating with her relatives in Bauchi because one of them is a divisional police officer and another is an army officer. I could not do anything about the corpse because the girl’s body was in bad condition and because of the bad economy, I felt it was better for her to be buried in Niger State. So, we went and paid some money at the mortuary and on Friday, September 8, she was buried.
Did anyone advise you to seek legal redress over her killing?
The issue is that if they are asking me to go to court, which one would I face? Going to court or carrying out evangelism? I lost a relative and it has taken a lot of my time and money. Knowing the Nigerian situation, if you are fortunate, you may get justice, and if not, you may not get justice. Where she has gone, I just pray that she has seen Christ because nobody has been there and returned. If the police want to do anything, I don’t think that I can advise them. They are the law enforcement agency.
What is the latest the police have told you about the case?
The police asked me whether I wanted to go to court, but I told them to give me the corpse so I could go and bury her. Death is a necessary end which will come when it will come. This is what God has hidden from us, we don’t know the secret. Everybody is going to die. God has already done it so. It is true that there was carelessness in the accident, but if she was destined to die that day, she may have died at home and we would have opened the door and seen her corpse. So, I don’t have much to say as long as they have given me the corpse and I’ve buried it. I thank God she was rehabilitated; we want to trust God that she’s with Him. It is not how long you lived but how well you lived. I don’t have time to pursue the case in court or even the money. So, I leave it to God.
My concern was for them to give me the corpse which I have buried. I don’t have the time to go to court. As an evangelist, before the year runs out, I would have covered not less than 80 communities. How will I have the time to do that and still go to court? The police can follow up the case to its logical conclusion.
