Falmata’s Killer Flees as Authorities Search Following HumAngle Investigation

HumAngle has confirmed that Awana Lawan Umar, the individual implicated in the tragic death of his 17-year-old niece, Falmata, has evaded capture following the Nigerian police’s attempts to locate him after our report on the incident.

The incident occurred in Bama, Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria on April 6, within the residence of the victim’s family, which they shared with her uncle, the suspect. Falmata’s mother reported that Awana had a prior history of violent behaviour towards the girl, resulting in injuries on previous occasions. On that day, the girl confronted him, a decision that would later have fatal consequences.

The tension between them resulting from her standing up for herself had brewed for three days as he sharpened a cutlass publicly and vowed to kill her. Despite mediation attempts by family members and a representative of the Bama Emirate Council and Falmata being made to apologise to him publicly, Awana killed her with a weapon he had fashioned out of wood for the purpose as she slept one night a few paces away from her sick and heavily pregnant mother.

Awana was immediately taken into custody by the Bama division and transferred to the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) in Maiduguri, the state capital, as it was a capital offence. In a bizarre turn of events, he was released barely two months later.

In the aftermath of HumAngle’s investigation three months ago about the matter, Nigerians raised their voices against the heinous act, demanding the re-arrest of Awana using hashtags #FalmataWasKilled and #JusticeForFalmata. Authorities reached out to HumAngle for more details, which we provided, including his new address and contact details. Following this and attempts to re-arrest Awana, he fled the house he was living in Maiduguri. His surety also fled. 

Residents of the area told HumAngle that authorities had come searching for the suspect several times. They were unsure if they were from the Nigeria Police Force or the State Security Service of Nigeria. 

“We didn’t know about his past. Now that we know, everyone is scared of him and glad that he has left,” one resident, who declined to be named, said. 

But why was Awana released in the first place? 

HumAngle investigated what led to Awana’s release in the first place, tracking paperwork and those involved in the case. 

After the State Police Command transferred the case to the public prosecution department at the Ministry of Justice, a medical report claiming that the suspect was of unsound mind had materialised from some of the family members supporting the suspect’s actions. Though only a court can terminate a case by declaring the suspect to be of unsound mind following a crime, HumAngle found that a counsel from the Ministry of Justice had acted unilaterally and wrote a letter to the police, asking them to release the suspect on that ground. The petition also claimed that some of the family members would rather not prosecute the case, amounting to the police’s efforts to “waste government resources.”

Procedurally and legally, a petition like that can only be issued with the permission of the state’s Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). However, sources close to the case said the DPP’s consent had not been issued for this petition. 

“For a termination request like that, the DPP would have to vet it, then forward it to the Permanent Secretary to vet it, and finally forward it to the Commissioner to approve it. But none of these was done in this case,” the source said. 

HumAngle reached out to the DPP, Hajiya Salamatu Idris, who, though she declined an interview, confirmed that the petition had indeed been issued without her knowledge or approval. Consequently, as the case resurfaced following HumAngle’s investigation, she immediately wrote an order to the Police requesting that the suspect be re-arrested. As she declined an interview, it is unclear if any punitive measures were taken against the counsel responsible for the suspect’s release in the first place. 

The Borno Police Command, however, confirmed to HumAngle that it had received the order from the DPP for Awana’s re-arrest and shared that even though he was at large, all hands were on deck to find him. 

Femicide, the deliberate killing of women and girls, often by men, continues to be widespread in Nigeria. This particular case sparked conversations across the country when the investigation was published three months ago. The conversations were held across social media and radio stations like Women Radio, Radio Now, PRIMORG, and other platforms. Data shows that at least 135 femicide cases were reported in 2024 alone, with low cases of prosecution of the perpetrators, highlighting the gap in how seriously crimes against women are taken.