Residents of Mutuwa Geji in Gusau metropolis are battling to come to terms with what would have led a young man to kill his own mother and two sisters. Weekly Trust reports:

A young man in his 20s named Kamal Yusuf is in the custody of the police in Zamfara State for allegedly masterminding the murder of his biological mother, Hajiya Hafsatu and her two daughters, Amina and Maryam.
Both Hajiya Hafsat and Amina were believed to have been slaughtered, while Maryam was believed to have been strangulated to death.
Police sources said Kamal allegedly contracted three of his friends to do the dirty job after futile attempts to have a portion of his mother’s wealth which she inherited following the death of her second husband – Kamal’s stepfather.
Hajiya Hafsatu’s first marriage to Kamal’s father did not last, but she decided to move with Kamal into the house of her second husband because his father showed little or no interest in him. Her second husband, with whom she gave birth to Amina and Maryam, was wealthy. And when he died, she inherited part of the wealth he left behind.
“In her (Hajiya Hafsatu’s) effort to see that Kamal lives to be a responsible child, she gave him the best of what she could afford, including a car,” said a resident of Mutuwa Geji neighbourhood in Gusau metropolis, where Kamal lived with his mother and two step siblings.
Hajiya Hafsatu, the resident who gave his name simply as Hassan, tried all she could to see that he had the best of education just like a mother would. “He was at different times a student of a polytechnic in Bauchi, Alhikmah University in Ilorin and Abdu Gusau Polytechnic in Zamfara but was dismissed for misconduct,” Hassan revealed.
Kamal, Weekly Trust gathered, was not interested in education. Rather, he had his eyes on his mother’s wealth. Some even said he had wanted to benefit from the wealth left behind by his stepfather, although that was not sanctioned by Islam.
Despite his seeming ungratefulness, Hajiya Hafsatu refused to give up on her son and continued carrying him along in most of her dealings.
Penultimate Friday, Hajiya Hafsat went to the bank along with Kamal where she withdrew N800,000. When they left the bank, Weekly Trust learnt that Kamal requested for some cash out of the money from his mother but she told him that the money was meant for something else.
Not satisfied with his mother’s explanation, Kamal decided to collect the money through other means and at night invited his friends to his home. In the end, they killed his mother as well as her two young daughters and dumped their corpses into Gusau Water Board Dam. The suspects, after the crime, fled to neighbouring Kaduna State.
The woman’s corpse was later found floating in a river by residents who reported the matter to the police. The police went to the scene, evacuated the corpse to the Federal Medical Center Gusau for post mortem. Deep cuts and injuries were discovered all over her body, which led the police to suspect foul play and marked the case as culpable homicide.
Meanwhile, all attempts to establish the whereabouts of Hajiya Maryam and her two daughters were unsuccessful and all calls placed to her mobile phone were not going through. Two days later, her relations, therefore, decided to report the matter to the police as a case of missing person.
The police took the complainants to the Public Mortuary to see whether the corpse found earlier was that of the missing person. Upon seeing the corpse, which had already began to decompose; the relations instantly recognized it as that of their sister.
The police began investigation immediately and went to the deceased person’s residence for clues. The house was found locked and when the door was forced open, there were blood stains everywhere and the room was apparently ransacked, Weekly Trust gathered.
The deceased car was also not seen inside the house but her son’s car was there with blood stains. Inside the car’s booth, pillow cases and bed sheets soaked with blood were recovered.
The police then confirmed their suspicion of culpable homicide. They juxtaposed such finding with reports that the deceased person’s son had been threatening to kill her for failing to give him money. This made the son, Kamal, a prime suspect.
Weekly Trust learnt further that the late Hajiya Hafsatu had severally alerted her relations of her son’s threat to kill her. “If I should die, hold Kamal responsible,” she was reported to have said in the past.
Further searches by the police led to the findings of the corpses of the late woman’s two daughters killed by the same assailants.
Weekly Trust heard from sources that Kamal was found by the road side in the Kawo area of Kaduna metropolis sleeping inside his late mother’s car which they fled with. The N800, 000 which his mother withdrew from the bank and an additional N500, 000 were found in his possession.
It was gathered that Kamal has since admitted to committing the crime, but said his intention was not to kill his mother, but scare her into giving him money.
The police in Zamfara State also confirmed that Kamal was found and arrested in Kaduna. The state’s Police Commissioner, Mr. Akila Usman Gwary, said two of the accomplices - Armaya’u Yusuf and Caleb Humphrey - had been arrested by the police, while the third suspect is still at large.
He said no stone would be left unturned in fishing out the remaining culprits. He equally described the act as unfortunate and highly barbaric, adding that those involved must face the full wrath of the law.
http://weeklytrust.com.ng/index.php/new-news/12883-son-kills-mother-2-sisters-over-money-in-zamfara