The haunting mystery surrounding the disappearance and death of Major General Idris Alkali (rtd), who went missing in 2018, has once again resurfaced in a gripping courtroom narration that laid bare the shocking depth of human cruelty.
Appearing before the Jos High Court on Wednesday as the principal witness, Major General Umaru Ibrahim Muhammed (rtd) recounted in vivid detail how the late General was gruesomely murdered in Dura-Du village, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State — his body dismembered and buried in a shallow grave before being moved and dumped elsewhere.
According to Gen. Muhammed, who was at the time the Garrison Commander with the 3 Division of the Nigerian Army, the search for the missing General began after he was declared missing on September 3, 2018.
“Late Gen. Alkali left Abuja for Bauchi via Jos. He made his last call around Dura-Du village, and from that moment, his phone went off. He never reached Bauchi, and all efforts to reach him failed,” he told the court.
Assigned to lead the search and rescue operation, Gen. Muhammed said his mission had three clear objectives — to find Gen. Alkali dead or alive, to locate his black Toyota Corolla with registration number MUN 679 AA, and to uncover those behind his disappearance.
He was given another Major General and thirty soldiers to execute the assignment. Their initial search of hospitals and police stations yielded no result until mobile network data led them to Dura-Du village — the last location where Alkali’s phone was switched off.
That clue became the turning point.
Upon arrival, the team’s suspicion centered around a large mining pond in the village. But what followed was a chilling display of local resistance.
“The villagers mobilized about 500 women to protest, trying to stop us from searching the pond,” Gen. Muhammed recalled. “But we pressed on.”
Determined, the soldiers brought in heavy equipment — including fire service trucks from Taraba and divers from Bauchi. After two weeks of draining the murky pond, their worst fears were confirmed. On September 29, 2018, they found Gen. Alkali’s Toyota Corolla submerged in the depths.
“Inside the car were his military uniform, shirt, shoes, and cap with his name clearly written on them,” Muhammed said.
But the horror did not stop there.
Further dredging of the pond unearthed a grim collection of vehicles belonging to other missing persons — including a bus whose driver had vanished seven years earlier, a red Rover car from Bisichi, a tipper lorry, tricycles, and motorcycles. It became a watery graveyard of human tragedy.
The discovery of Alkali’s car reignited efforts to locate his remains. Through intelligence gathering, the team arrested one suspect who led them to a shallow grave in “no man’s land,” where the slain General had initially been buried.
The suspect confessed that after killing Alkali, the killers dragged his body around the village before burying him in the shallow grave.
But when soldiers returned with sniffer dogs to confirm, they found the grave empty — the body had been moved.
“Further investigation revealed that a mortician was hired to evacuate the body, cut it up, and repackage it into two bags,” Gen. Muhammed said. “The mortician led us to one Mr. Stephen, who then directed us to another village called Buchwet, about 10 kilometers away from Dura-Du. That was where we recovered the remains of Gen. Alkali on October 30, 2018.”
To confirm the identity, a pathologist was engaged to examine the remains. The findings were gruesome.
“The killers sliced his skull into two and shattered his body into pieces,” Muhammed recounted somberly. “It was clear he had been brutally murdered.”
The pathologist’s report matched the late General’s medical records and even the soil sample from the original shallow grave, confirming the identity beyond doubt.
The second prosecution witness, Major Arashinga Bulus, serving in the Nigerian Army headquarters in Abuja, corroborated Gen. Muhammed’s testimony. He confirmed the arrest of 21 suspects in connection with the brutal murder.
The court has adjourned the case to November 6 for continuation of trial and the presentation of additional witnesses.
As the nation revisits this dark chapter, the tale of Gen. Idris Alkali’s murder serves as a grim reminder of the evil that can lurk within communities and the heart of man itself — a chilling reflection of how humanity can descend into savagery when conscience is buried beneath the pond of wickedness.